'Harry Lavender' is made up of twenty chapters which have no chapter titles or numbers. The beginning of each chapter is indicated by a large 'drop capital' letter and a space left at the top of the page. Five of these chapters are printed in italic type. These chapters are extracts from Mark Bannister's book which has the same title as Day's own novel.

 

SUMMARY OF EACH CHAPTER

Pages 1-14

The novel opens with a 'morning after the night before' scene. The narrator leave 'a good looking blonde' in bed and goes out into the living room littered with cigarette butts, glasses and other remnants of a night of private partying. The narrator dresses in a black suit and black shoes and rouses the nameless 'blonde' before leaving for a funeral. The first suggestion that the narrator is female is in the description of her heels clattering across the street. She buys some flowers to take to the funeral of Mark Bannister, the brother of her old school friend Marilyn Edwards.

We are introduced to the narrator's name during a phone conversation with Marilyn. Marilyn believes her brother was murdered and arranges to meet with Claudia at The Regent Hotel. She tells Claudia that Mark had a pacemaker and that the cause of his death had been given as cardiac arrest. What concerned Marilyn, though, was a card she had received after Mark's death which had these words on it: TERMINAL ILLNESS.

Among the flowers at the funeral is a bunch of lavender, the first of many references to this plant throughout the story. Claudia notices two men in a BMW watching the funeral group from a distance.

After the funeral, Claudia goes to an informal 'wake' with some of Mark's friends. She meets Robbie Macmillan who tells Claudia that Mark loved computer games and that he had been given a computer to write a book for which he was being very well paid. Claudia also meets Mark's girlfriend Sally Villos who is loudly and drunkenly grieving for Mark. She reveals that Mark was using drugs ('stuff'), identified later as heroin.

When Claudia arrives home, a present is waiting for her: a pot of lavender addressed TO MY VALENTINE. She thinks it must be from 'last night's blonde' but we have begun to suspect that Harry Lavender is on her trail.

 

PAGE 15

This is the first of the italicised chapters. We later find out that they are extracts from Mark Bannister's book, which is also entitled, 'The Life And Crimes of Harry Lavender'. It is written as a first person narrative in the voice of Harry Lavender. In this extract Harry describes a dream he has of his own funeral at which the police and politicians mix with Harry's criminal colleagues. He is being remembered as a great man. The name Collier in this extract, we later find out, is that of a newspaper reporter who is a friend of Claudia and of her father.

 

PAGES 16-24

This chapter is significant because we meet a number of useful contacts in varied professions who help Claudia follow up her leads. The first of these is a friend called Bernie who is a public servant. He has access to files that enable him to trace the number plates on the BMW parked at the cemetery during Mark's funeral. Claudia then visits another contact named Otto, a computer expert whom she persuades to help her investigate Mark's computer. Next, she has an appointment with Dr Mackintosh, Mark's family doctor, who tells her that the surgeons who operated on Mark to fit the pacemaker were Dr Prendergast and Dr Villos. Claudia recognises that Dr Villos has the same surname as Sally, Mark's girlfriend. The next contact she meets is Lucy, a worker at the allergy clinic, who tells her that Villos is in Europe. She introduces her to Steve Angell, a medical technician who could help her enquiries.

 

PAGES 25-29

Claudia is flirtatious with the handsome Steve Angell but she soon gets down to the business of inquiring about his ex-patient Mark Bannister. She finds out from him that Mark's heroin use is unlikely to have been the cause of his death and that his pacemaker was 'state of the art'. Mark had completed a routine checkup of his pacemaker with Steve using a modem and tester from his own home only two days before he died. Steve remembers Mark particularly because, when he was doing electronic tests on Mark's ultra-sensitive heart, he nearly killed him. Steve had to fit a magnet to Mark's pacemaker because of this sensitivity of his heart's ventricles.

Claudia is attracted to Steve and asks him personal questions about his life before they arrange to meet for drinks and dinner.

 

PAGES 30-40

Claudia and Otto go to Mark's flat to check out his computer. Claudia finds some of Mark's junkie gear but thinks that it is strange that a writer has no paper around. Otto is equally confused at the absence of computer discs and he cannot access anything in the computer. Claudia decides to interview some of Mark's neighbours. Claudia brags that she doesn't need to carry a gun like some of her 'cowboy colleagues' but the first resident she tries to interview tells her to 'piss off!' and it seems her courteous approach isn't working. They leave the building to buy an icecream and again see the BMW car that seems to be following Claudia.

The next residents they interview are Mr and Mrs Levack who live opposite Mark's flat. Mrs Levack is a busybody who has been spying on Mark through binoculars and knows a lot about his daily routine and his visitors. A regular visitor, she says, was a woman with 'hair like a lion's mane'. Mrs Levack also gives us an eye-witness account of Mark's death as he is seated at his computer terminal. She describes how she saw a woman (Sally) come in after Mark had collapsed. Soon after, a man wearing gloves arrived and closed Mark's curtains.

 

PAGES 41-42

This is the second of the Harry Lavender chapters which are printed in italics. This extract tells us about Harry's childhood. He is a Polish refugee whose family has been killed by the Nazis and he has had to survive on his cunning and wits in a war-torn land. After he is sent to Australia, he recalls being victimised at school because, as a poor, migrant orphan, he was singled out as being different. He shows each of the bullies his knife to get his revenge on them. He compares himself to two Polish heroes, Kosciuszko and Strzelecki, who have become famous in Australia. Lavender's ascent to prominence, however, would be through corruption not legitimate, socially acceptable achievement.

 

PAGES 43-58

Claudia, with Bernie's help, has tracked down the owner of the BMW which has been following her. It is registered to a Mr Arthur O'Toole in Bronte. However, when she visits the address, she is greeted by his widow who informs Claudia that Arthur has been dead for twenty years. Claudia, in true detective style, notices a photograph of a boy on Mrs O'Toole's mantelpiece. Mrs O'Toole identifies the boy, who is now a man, as her son, Ronny, and Claudia identifies him as the man who has been tailing her. Mrs O'Toole doesn't know where her son lives but, when Claudia leaves, the BMW is parked nearby obviously shadowing Claudia's every move.

Claudia tries to follow the BMW but loses it near Bondi. She recalls that Mark's friend Robbie Macmillan told her that he often surfed at this beach, so she finds him and questions him about Mark's drug-taking. He tells her that Mark sused to score his drugs at a video arcade in the city. When she leaves the beach after talking to Robbie, she walks past the BMW and notices that its dashboard is full of high-tech instrumentation, but she doesn't dare touch the car in case an alarm is triggered. She noses her faithful old Daimler car towards the city and notices the BMW cruising after her once again. The BMW seems to be able to trace her movements even when her own car is not in view.

To find out how the BMW can follow her so accurately, Claudia visits Otto, her computer expert friend. He explains that there are transmitters that can be attached to a vehicle to make it easy to follow on a display screen in the pursuer's car. He searches the Daimler and finds a transmitter under the rear of her car. Rather than just dispose of the transmitter, Claudia has a cheekier solution: she attaches it to a parked police vehicle!

Uninvited, Claudia decides to call on Sally at the Villos mansion. Sally is typically nervous and very defensive when Claudia asks her about her father, Raymond Villos, the famous heart surgeon. When Claudia starts to talk about Mark's death, Sally, for the second time, mentions Mark's drug-taking as if trying to steer Claudia away from any other possible causes of his death. Claudia asks her who the gloved man was that Mrs Levack had spied in Mark's flat and Sally gives the unconvincing explanation that he was an intruder from whom she had simply hidden out of fear.

At the end of this chapter, Day introduces a new character: Claudia's friend, Detective Carol Rawlins. Claudia wants to obtain a copy of Sally's official statement to the police about Mark's death.

 

PAGES 59-64

Steve pays Claudia an unexpected visit. We learn that Amanda, Steve's flatmate, attends the same Art College as Sally.

Claudia has an appointment with her detective friend, Carol. She had been a university student with Claudia and is now a career detective determined to make it to the top of her profession. At Claudia's request, Carol has tracked down Sally's statement and read the autopsy report. Yet neither of these documents reveals anything suspicious about Mark's death.

 

PAGES 65-66

In this extract from Lavender's memoirs the reader is given an insight into the workings of Harry's criminal mind. He reveals that murder is just an ordinary day's work for him, explaining that it takes careful, cold-hearted planning. He then describes the gunning down of a gangster named Lucky Nolan, which he had either committed himself or had masterminded.

 

PAGES 67-75

In search of Mark's drug dealers, Claudia adopts the common detective technique of going undercover. She adopts a typical disguise, a blonde wig and dark glasses, and visits the video arcade that Robbie had told her about. She pretends to try to score some 'smack' from the huge Maori bouncer and mentions Ronny O'Toole's name to see if the Maori shows any recognition of it. Her attempts fail to give her any leads from the stony-faced Maori. Claudia leaves, takes off her disguise and buys a hamburger. While she is eating, she thinks about the history f the city of Sydney. (This is one of the many times the city is discussed in the novel).

She observes Ronny O'Toole turn up in his BMW, talk to the Maori then drive around the corner from the video arcade. Claudia follows Ronny to where he has parked behind a Customs van. She watches carefully as two men load game machines into the van. Ronny then accepts a thick envelope, presumably containing money, before getting into the van. Claudia follows the van in her rented LTD car to a container terminal. From a hiding place among the huge containers, Claudia observes the men pick up a security guard (an obvious inside accomplice), open a shipping container, then swap the game machines from the van with four from the container. They are about to leave when they notice Claudia's car parked near the terminal. Suspicious of who might have witnessed their crime, the criminals reach for their guns and begin to search the terminal. Claudia, unarmed, is terrified as the security guard approaches, gun in hand. Meanwhile, Ronny has made a phone call to someone, then ordered the guard to call off the search. Ronny and the others drive away but the guard, contrary to orders, continues to search. When he comes within range, Claudia lashes out with her feet and fists, disables the guard and dives into the harbour to escape, with teeth marks and bruises to show for her ordeal.

 

PAGES 76-82

Having survived her encounter with the guard, Claudia makes her way to Steve's house to have her wounds treated and to feel the reassurance of his touch. They bathe together and then he prepares an elegant light meal and opens expensive champagne. In contrast with the recent fight scene, this interlude is idyllically romantic.

In the midst of their affectionate patter, Claudia asks some more questions about Mark. Steve explains that Mark's pacemaker would not have been cremated with his body, but removed beforehand so it could be used again. This starts a discussion about how dependent humans are on technology, a topic which arises a number of times in this novel.

 

PAGES 83-84

This chapter is another italicised Harry Lavender narration in which the reader is given a bird's-eye view of Sydney and a brief history lesson about the city's settlement days. This perspective places Harry in an all-powerful position above the ordinary citizens. He speaks as if he identifies with the whole history and structure of the city. He looks down on the city from his god-like position, controlling people like chess pawns.

The imagery used in this chapter implies that drugs  are the basis of Harry's empire. Like the rum which was used to pay for convict labour in the colonial days of Sydney, the 'euphoric flowers of Asia' are the currency in which Harry trades. This imagery is continued in the desciption of the sewers under Sydney's streets which are compared to veins carrying a deadly cargo of heroin through the bloodstream of the body of the city.

 

PAGES 85-98

When Claudia returns to her room, she senses that an intruder has been there. Nothing seems to have been touched but, in her lavender plant, she discovers that the original card TO MY VALENTINE has been replaced by another which reads: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF HARRY LAVENDER. This is the third such card - the first was the TERMINAL ILLNESS card that Mark's sister had received after his death and which had prompted this whole investigation process. You will remember that, when the lavender plant arrived, Claudia thought it must have been from the 'good-looking blonde' lover with whom she had spent the night. Now, however, she realises that she has been touched by the ever-present hand of Harry Lavender.

Claudia has a particularly stron reaction to the name Harry Lavender because he had destroyed her father's career and sent him plummeting into drunken despair. Her father, Guy, had been a prominent journalist who was investigating Harry Lavender's criminal involvements. Lavender had begun to threaten Guy and his family in order to stop these investigations and this had led to Guy's slide into alcoholism.

To find out more about Lavender, Claudia contacts Brian Collier who had been a journalist colleague of her father. Collier tells her that he saw Guy five years ago - a drunken wreck living on the streets. An article written by Guy is reproduced showing that he was in the process of exposing Harry Lavender as a hitman for the criminals who operated a city amusement arcade. Collier tells Caludia about Lavender and his connections with other Sydney gangsters. He reveals that Lavender is dying of cancer and that one of the criminals who may be trying to take over Harry's empire after his death is Ronny O'Toole (the driver of the BMW which has been following Claudia). Ronny goes by the name 'Johnny the Jumper' because of his vicious method of punishing his enemies by jumping on their legs to break them. She begins to wonder why 'Johnny' has been following her and why he has kept her alive when he has had opportunity to kill her. Collier warns Claudia that Lavender may only be toying with her the way 'cats play with mice' and that he might kill her when he was tired of playing. His advice is for her to stop the investigation for her own safety.

When she returns to her car, it looks as if someone has tampered with the window and she fears that the car may have explosives attached to its ignition. She finally works up the courage to start the car and then notices a black Porsche tailing her. Feeling a little paranoid, she stops at a phone booth and calls her ex-husband to check that her children are OK.

 

PAGES 99-113

Claudia ignores Collier's advice and psyches herself up to continue the investigation. She arranges with her computer-whiz friend Otto to break into Mark's computer program once more, even though their earlier efforts had failed.

Her next step is to contact Sally who, with unusual friendliness, invites Claudia over for a drink. It is revealed that it was Sally in the black Porsche which had nearly driven Claudia off the road earlier. Claudia notices from a wedding photograph that Sally doesn't look much like either Dr or Mrs Villos. Sally gives Claudia a bundle of Mark's personal belongings and papers. Under the heading 'H' in his address book was a number but no name - the implication being that this is Harry's number.

During their conversation, Sally mentions that Mark had been very concerned not to lose the copy of 'Harry Lavender' manuscript, which he had kept on a computer disc. There was no sign of this disc in Mark's belongings. Sally refuses to allow Claudia to take Mark's computer away with her.

On her way home, Claudia thinks about the city, comparing it to Sally in its sophistication and moodiness. When she arrives at the pub where she lives, Claudia sits with an old regular drinker called George who always rambles about items from the day's news. Claudia's attention is caught when he mentions the nespaper story about a yong bloke who was found dead on the beach with his legs broken. Claudia reads the article and has her fears confirmed - the body is that of Mark's young mate Robbie Macmillan. She is nauseated by this news and rushes to the toilet to retch. She knows that Robbie was a victim of 'Johnny the Jumper' and phones her detective mate Carol Rawlins to inform her.

Claudia also phones the number from Mark's address book which had been namelessly listed under 'H'. There is no answer but there is an electronic sound on the other end of the line. It is apparent that this is Harry's line through which information about the book was transferred. She then phones Otto to relay this data transmission number so he can try to tap into Harry Lavender's computer. Claudia then receives a very distressed call from Sally who is sobbing uncontrollably. This call, combined with Robbie's murder, causes Claudia to fear for all the other people she had contacted in connection with this case, including Steve. In her panicky state of mind she wonders if Steve, in fact, had something to do with Mark's murder because he has the medical know-how to tempered with the pacemaker. She phones him to reassure herself but he doesn't answer.

 

PAGES 114-122

Sally is completely distraught when Claudia arrives and she has been drinking heavily. Sally describes how two men had pushed their way into her house after Claudia had left last time. They had rummaged through Mark's belongings and taken the computer. Claudia feels that this is something of a coincidence, given that on her last visit with Sally she herself had asked to take the computer away for investigation. She still suspects that Sally is somehow involved in the crime.

Claudia wonders if Ronny ('Johnny the Jumper') had stolen the computer so she heads across town to the games arcade. She decides to break into the building but has to wait until later in the night when no-one would be there. To pass the time, she goes to a late-night movie. In a slightly humorous interlude, she startles a spaced-out hippie in the toilet of the cinema by going through her karate exercises.

Eventually Claudia returns to the arcade, climbs up to the wooden doors on the second floor and breaks into the building. She unscrews the back panels of some of the machines but finds no drugs, only adhesive tape marks where something had been hidden. In search of the computer, Claudia makes her way to the office but is interrupted by the sound of voices downstairs, one of which she recognises as that of the Maori bouncer. The Maori is telling the other person that Harry is not pleased with him taking things into his own hands. They go into the office, but only the Maori leaves. When Claudia cautiously enters the office, she makes a horrible discovery: the body of Ronny O'Toole, his severed tongue in his hand. Claudia searches the desk and discovers papers showing that Harry Lavender is the owner of the company, Hartronics, which makes pacemakers. She also finds a modelling magazine with a glossy photograph of Sally Villos on its cover. The thought occurs to her that perhaps Sally is actually Harry's daughter. She then decides to phone Carol, because the case is getting too much for her to handle. After dialling Carol's number, she is knocked unconscious.

 

PAGES 123-131

When Claudia regains consciousness, she is at the wheel of her hire car which has crashed into the water's edge near a harbourside park. She is in pain and smalls of alcohol. Claudia has been set up by Lavender's men, made to appear drunk so that her story about Ronny and the Maori would be discredited. The police and ambulance people attend to her and Claudia insists that they contact Detective Carol Rawlins.

Carol acts more like a detective than a friend and questions Claudia about the previous night's events with suspicion. When Carol sends the police to investigate the arcade office, there is no evidence of a body. The evidence against Claudia is mounting: she appeared drunk, there is no body, she claims to have phoned Carol but didn't get through, and the previous day Claudia had ordered Carol to get Ronny. Now he is dead. Personally, Carol believes Claudia's story but, professionally, she knows that a lot more proof is needed. She, like Brian Collier earlier, warns Claudia to leave Lavender alone before she gets hurt.

 

PAGES 132-134

This is the last and longest extract from Mark Bannister's book narrated in the voice of Harry Lavender. The language he uses is full of images and metaphors describing his powerful hold over the city. He begins by describing his network of control over the city as being like a beehive, with himself as the queen bee dictating the movements of the drones and thugs who work for him. He explains that 'Johnny the Jumper' (Ronny O'Toole) was expendable and had to be eliminated because he was disobeying orders.

A further revelation is that it was he who ordered the electronic adjustment of Mark's pacemaker which led to his death. He then compares his criminal empire to a computer system because it is so complex, yet so easily controlled. This use of computer imagery is particularly relevant because it is from computer crime that he has recently been making most of his illegal fortune. This chapter has a finality about it. Harry is summarising his 'achievements' and gives the strong impression that his empire will continue long after he himself has faded.

 

PAGES 135-148

Claudia is starting to worry about recent events and is becoming a little paranoid, suspecting everyone of involvement with Lavender's web of corruption. When Claudia phones Steve, he tells her that the latest recipient of Mark's pacemaker has been killed in a collision with a semi-trailer, destroying the pacemaker. This ruins any chance Claudia has of proving that it could have been tampered with in order to kill Mark. Steve also tells her that the pacemakers are supplied by Hartronics. She knows from her office break-in that this is a company owned by Harry Lavender. In her growing paranoia, Claudia accuses Steve of bugging her phone.

Meanwhile, Otto contacts Claudia to tell her that the number she had given him from Mark Bannister's address book was indeed a data transmission number, but that a password was also needed if she wanted to get into Lavender's computer system. After several guesses at a logical password, Claudia tries her own name and the file opens! On the screen emerges a heart which is being devoured by lavender-coloured crabs. It is now obvious to Claudia that Harry has been leading her to this point, keeping her alive because he wants something from her - the missing copy of 'The Life And Crimes Of Harry Lavender'.

Mrs Levack, Mark's busybody neighbour, had phoned Claudia so she pays her a visit. She shows Claudia a letter addressed to Mark which she had taken from his mail box. It is a rejection letter from the American publisher to whom Mark had sent the remaining copy of his book. Mrs Levack also tells Claudia that Sally has visited Mark's flat again recently.

 

PAGES 149-163

After luckily discovering the whereabouts of the missing manuscript, Claudia phones Sally and insists on meeting her at a sauna; otherwise Claudia will have the matter handed over to the police. In the relatively secluded sauna, Claudia questions Sally as to why she had lied about the computer and why she had agreed to meet Claudia. Sally refuses to anser cooperatively and tries to leave, so Claudia threatens to hold her in the airless, steamy sauna until she talks. When she feels she has threatened Sally enough, Claudia allows her to leave the sauna. While getting her towel after a shower, Sally takes a small gun out of her bag, points it at Claudia and demands her book.

Claudia distracts Sally, kicks the gun from her hand and throws it into the fire box of the sauna. A naked wrestle follows, interrupted finally by Margaret, the sauna manager. Claudia tells Margaret to phone Carol Rawlins.

In the struggle, Sally confesses that she was involved in Mark's death. She explains that she did go to the bathroom (as witnessed by Mrs Levack) where she got Mark's drug gear and took it back to where he was slumped over the computer. To make it appear that Mark had died of an overdose, Sally had injected him with heroin. She did this to try to cover up the fact that her father had actually just murdered Mark via the computer. Harry Lavender had programmed the computer in a way that would alter the functioning of Mark's pacemaker, putting his heart in a critical condition. The slightest shock or exertion would be enough to kill him. 'He read his own death'.

In the moments before Carol and the police arrive, Claudia accuses Sally of actually being the daughter of Harry Lavender, not of Dr Raymond Villos. Sally denies this accusation, but it does explain why Sally wanted the book to keep her true identity hidden from the public.

When Carol arrives, Claudia wants her to arrest Sally because she is now convinced that Sally is Lavender's daughter and was involved in Mark's death, just as she had confessed. Carol, acting the tough cop, explains that she needs more than Claudia's suspicions in order to arrest Sally. Claudia accuses Carol of not wanting to believe her story because Carol's superiors in the police force may be putting pressure on her to leave the Lavender case alone. Just then the gun on the fire box, triggered by the heat, fires three bullets, so Carol arrests Sally for possession of an illegal firearm.

When Claudia goes outside, she notices a van she had seen before and, suspecting that she is being followed by Lavender's men again, jumps in Carol's police car and orders the constable at the wheel to speed off. Ironically, the policeman nearly gets them both killed because he wants to stop at a red light and not go down a one-way street to escape the pursuing van. Claudia decides to resort to her favourite weapon - her legs. She orders the police driver to stop and let her out quickly so that the van will be led on a wild goose chase, following the police car without her in it. The van does catch up with her, though, and the Maori bouncer gets out armed with a knife. Claudia is trapped because the bridge she is running across opens up to let a sailboat pass through. She has no choice but to keep running and, harnessing all her concentration and energy, she leaps across the opening in the bridge to safety. The Maori in pursuit, however, is not so skilled or lucky - he fails to jump the widening gap and plummets into the dark waters of the harbour.

 

PAGES 164-169

The final chapter opens with a question, as if Day is anticipating the kinds of queries the reader will have at this late stage of the book. Brian Collier, the newspaper reporter, is asking Claudia to explain what has happened and why. She explains to him that Harry Lavender had decided to have his memoirs written so that there would be a record of his 'achievements' forever. He had chosen Mark because he was expendable and he could keep a close eye on him because Mark was his own daughter's boyfriend. Mark, however, became greedy towards the end of this project and decided to finish the book himself and send it to America to be published under his own name in the hopes of financial gain.

Harry had set up an elaborate game, then, to kill Mark and to find the missing copy of the manuscript. Claudia was, in fact, being used by Harry Lavender to find the manuscript. She was out to trap Lavender but all the while she herself was actually in Lavender's maze, effectively doing his work of tracking down Mark's book.

Claudia contacts the American publisher, Nancy Grosz, who had rejected Mark's book and arranges for her to return the only remaining disc containing the manuscript. She also phones Steve and plans a holiday with him to Queensland where she hopes he will be able to meet her children.

Just Claudia is savouring the scent of victory in this case, Collier gives her message that Harry Lavender has lapsed into a coma and is expected to die overnight.