Miss Lamp (PDF ebook)

A half-smile from her lights up a hotel hallway like a yellow party dress. So Miss Lamp shines. She left her sky-blue knee-high skirt at home, home where she strums songs on Saturdays. Songs about chameleons, raccoons or not eating dill pickles. The stoop hits thirty degrees on a good June morning. She sings with shiny lips on a good June morning. Peach lip balm.

When a mad dentist steals people's teeth, Miss Lamp comes to town.

Miss Lamp, a young and savvy lawyer, is holed up in Room 32 of the Peachland Hotel, waiting for a perfect grilled cheese sandwich and reviewing the case of Delano, the teeth-stealing dentist everybody loves to hate.

Meanwhile, the narrator takes us on a tour of Miss Lamp's memories, stories of her family, the adventures of those who knock on her door. There's Miss Lamp's mother, Abby, and her mean grandmother. There's the supremely lovable Paper Boy, abused by Delano and in love with a younger Miss Lamp. There's naive Room Service Boy, on the hunt for the perfect tomato soup to accompany Miss Lamp's grilled cheese; at the grocery store he meets the assertive Banana Tray Hair - could it be love?

These characters' stories weave together into a tangle - like moths to a light, they all kaleidoscope back to our Miss Lamp in her floral hotel room. She invites you in to smell the flowers, to walk in someone else's shoes, to eat a peach, to watch a magpie pick for gold.

'To read Miss Lamp is to see daily life again in clear, sharp lines and delightfully bright colours.’ – Larissa Lai