From the author of LORD VISHNU'S LOVE HANDLES comes a mind-bending mystery set in the city of New Orleans.  Corporate attorney, Duke Melançon, wrestles with twin emergencies that threaten his future. His employer, Mandala Worldwide, has unleashed a deepwater spill that could destroy the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, his crime boss mother, Madame Melançon, has disappeared into the syrupy night. These two seemingly unrelated events are somehow quantumly entangled. Moreover, Duke discovers just how entangled they truly are when he comes face-to-face with what his pet-psychic sister calls, "a tear in the brocade of time."  THE NEON PALM OF MADAME MELANÇON takes readers behind a Louisiana backdrop of pollution and mysticism to explore Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." What begins as a comic romp in the tradition of Cervantes, ends with breathtaking revelations about the mysteries of time, the tragedy of love, and the unexpected impact Clarke's Third Law will have on every aspect of our lives. Oh! And Kurt Vonnegut! And hope! Oh, so much hope. "WILL CLARKE, a Southern frat boy-turned-adman, has burst onto the literary scene like a kid cannonballing off the high-dive... His plotting reveals a man who thinks like Will Ferrell and dreams like Samuel Taylor Coleridge." -- The New York Times Sunday Book Review "The Vonnegut is strong in this one: Will Clarke's The Neon Palm of Madam Melançon is at once bitterly funny and entirely earnest in what it relates to us about family, New Orleans, and this poor, wrecked planet of ours." - Owen King, author of Double Feature and co-author of Sleeping Beauties KIRKUS REVIEWS : "BEST BOOKS OF 2017" An oil company lawyer moves home to New Orleans and finds that his fortuneteller mother has disappeared in Clarke's ( How to Kill A Boy That Nobody Like , 2009, etc.) novel. Duke Melançon grew up in New Orleans, at the corner of Magazine and Napoleon, in a fancy, inherited house that his wild Cajun family has practically destroyed. His father married a Russian fortuneteller, known as Madame Melançon, and they had seven sons and one girl. The youngest son, Duke, is a corporate lawyer in the External Affairs Department for oil giant Mandala Worldwide. During an accident on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 workers died, and oil is pouring into the Gulf. The company transfers Duke and his wife and kids to New Orleans to deal with the fallout, and Duke learns of a family crisis "when their witchy mother runs out into the hot, syrupy night, chasing a calico cat." Madame Melançon doesn't come home, and the family launches a search effort while Duke's new home is invaded by a gaze of raccoons. As Duke's wife and kids flee the craziness for Houston, Duke searches for answers about his mother from colorful locals, including a Kurt Vonnegut-like homeless guy and a shady villain. An elusive necklace of gold coins may hold the key to Madame's location as Duke tries to stay afloat with his career and his marriage. Clarke's riotous, amusing novel parallels real events, namely the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which does help ground a story that moves toward a moderately supernatural conclusion. The Melançons' stomping ground, the boisterous streets of New Orleans, is described in raucous and earthy details, a perpetual morning-after that juxtaposes inebriated tourists and battered locals. The family crisis is as pressing as the oil disaster. It's all very entertaining but also raises consequential questions about whether money can solve a moral crisis. A bizarrely soulful ride through New Orleans with corporate high jinks and some mystical, unseen forces adding to the experience. WILL CLARKE grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. He is the author of several works of fiction including, Lord Vishnu's Love Handle: A Spy Novel (sort of) and The Worthy: A Ghost's Story. He lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and family.