Forgotten Book: THE CASE OF THE CHINESE BOXES, Marele Day

This contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books is an Australian author, so the chances are that she is new-to-you.

THE CASE OF THE CHINESE BOXES was published in1990 and occurs in my records towards the end of 1992. The only cover image I've been able to find is a bit indistinct.

This is the 2nd in Day's Claudia Valentine series:
1. The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender (1988)
2. The Case of the Chinese Boxes (1990)
3. The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado (1993)
4. The Disappearances of Madalena Grimaldi (1995)

There is a nice review of CHINESE BOXES here 
The largest bank heist in Australian history finds tough Sydney investigator Claudia Valentine hired by a Chinese family to search for a key stolen from a safety deposit box. 

Marele Day has continued to write but more literary works (not crime fiction)
Shirley's Song (1984)
Lambs of God (1997)
Mavis Levack, P.I. (2000)
Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife (2003)
The Sea Bed (2009)

Marele Day was given a Lifetime Achievement award at the Ned Kellys in 2008.

I believe from what was said there, that the Ned Kelly awards were her brain child.   

Bernadette at Reactions to Reading said of THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF HARRY LAVENDER: If you like private eyes with a lot of guts and a sense of humour you could do a lot worse than track down this book.