The novel 'The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender' is identified on the cover as 'A Claudia Velentine Thriller'. You need to think about the conventions on which Marele Day is modelling her novel in order to appreciate her skill.

 

The thriller

The thriller is a book...dealing with crime, mystery, etc, in an exciting or sensational manner. (Macquarie Dictionary)

 

The thriller in what you might call its purest form is an exciting book. The reader is often engaged emotionally: shocked by violence or anxious with suspense. The central character in a thriller has to survive constant to achieve a goal. Sometimes he or she has been drawn innocently into the situation, for example in the classic 'Thirty-nine Steps' by John Buchan or in many of the thrillers by Dick Francis. In other books the central character may be a spy or some kind of government agent as in books by John Le Carre. Then again sometimes the central character may be a detective.

 

There are different kinds of detective story.

 

The classic detective story

The classic detective story is a story in which a person discovers the identity of the perpetrator of a crime and provides the evidence to prove this conclusion. This kind of story is often called humorously a 'whodunnit'. It is a 'clue puzzle' which the reader enjoys intellectually.

Some very general examples of classic fictional detectives are:

Sherlock Holmes by A Conan Doyle

Miss Marple by Agatha Christie

Miss Silver by Patricia Wentworth

Brother Cadfael by Eliis Peters

 

Characters like the above are sometimes called 'armchair' detectives because they solve crimes by logic and usually without putting themselves in dangerous situations. The crimes are isolated occurrences in settings that are normally tranquil.

 

In a detective thriller, the detective operates in a different way.

 

What happens in a detective thriller?

There is mystery, there is violence. The hero survives but has to go through painful experiences shared with the reader through a first person narrative.

 

In the 'hard-boiled' or 'gumshoe' detective thriller, originally set in the 1930s, the hero:

How do these features correspond to features of 'The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender'?

• has been toughened by life
• works as a private investigator (private 'eye')
• walks down 'mean streets' to discover the truth
• conventionally wears a felt hat, a gabardine raincoat and rubber-soled shoes (also known as 'gum-shoes') for quiet snooping
• is short of money (paying alimony to an ex-wife)
• drinks whiskey and is trying to give up smoking
• has a shabby office
• carries a gun
• investigates murders many of which involve organised crime
• while adept at breaking into property to obtain evidence, can be caught unawares and have his life put in danger
• is sometimes attracted to women in his cases.

The prototype (original model) of the hard-boiled detective is Philip Marlowe in 'The Big Sleep' and other books by Raymond Chandler. Marlowe was immortalised on film by Humphrey Bogart in 1946. Other authors used Philip Marlowe as a model for their own down-at-heel detectives. A similar model was the character Sam Spade in 'The Maltese Falcon' by Dashiell Hammett. An Australian example is the character of Cliff Hardy in books by Peter Corris.

 

Many detective stories have a strong background which give a special flavour to the story. For example, the Cadfael mysteries with an attractive medieval setting are set against civil war in England in the early 12th century. Police 'procedurals' by Ed McBain take place in an unnamed city which seems to have a character of its own.

 

Marele Day wanted to write about Sydney and she decided to say what she wanted to say through the hard-boiled detective thriller genre originated by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. She has done so but with a difference. Instead of using a male central character she has used a woman she calls Claudia Valentine. Through street-wise Claudia, she takes a feminist viewpoint that a woman can do anything a hard-boiled male detective can do, and better. She cheerfully borrows the features of the hard-boiled detective and entertains us with them.

 

• As you read the story work out for yourself what similarities Claudia has with Philip Marlowe and what differences there are in their operating styles.

Feminist detective fiction had to happen. Marele Day did not read any modern detective as she wrote her book. But coincidently during that period (mid-1980s) an American writer Sara Paretsky had begun publishing similar books set in Chicago.

 

QUESTION:

 

'The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender' is a typical 'whodunit' in which mysteries are solved and the villain is punished. To what extent do you agree with this assessment of the novel?

 

Brainstorming:

1. Mystery solved? - Yes, eg: Why Claudia is followed and where is Mark's book.

2. Villain not really punished: Lavender triumphs in death.

3. Not typical 'whodunit' but hard-boiled genre with twist.

4. Novel with theme of Sydney with its qualities and faults.

5. Language

 

Subverting the genre?

Some educationists argue that int he novel Marele Day is 'subverting the detective thriller genre'. Be cautious about using this jargon. To begin with, the examiners will not read the phrase in every examination answer. Furthermore, the word 'subvert' may not be an accurate verb for what Marele Day is doing.

 

Sub- means 'under' and -vert means 'turn'. The Macquarie Dictionary gives these meanings: 'to overthrow something established...', 'to cause the downfall of', 'to undermine the principles of' and so on. Look up the entry. All these meanings have negative connotations.

 

You may consider that Marele Day exposes and manipulates rather than undermines the genre. Rather, in a positive and even joyful way Day expands the genre, takes it a step further, in content as well as in language. Claudia dispenses with the gun so necessary to Marlowe and relies on the martial arts powered by an inner strength. Her crusade against crime is expressed with a bright wry humour encapsulating the character of the city which Day sends her out to protect.

 

Question:

1. Consider whether you think Marele Day is 'subverting' the genre or doing something else like expanding it.

2. In 'The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender' Marele Day takes the detective thriller genre and uses it for her own purposes. To what extent do you agree with this statement? In what ways does Day 'use' the genre?