The Pixel Palace was supposed to save Welvin. A glowing sanctuary of pizza slices, ticket prizes, and endless quarters. Instead, it became a dictatorship.
Enter Rex "High Score" Hammers. A leather-jacketed arcade tyrant with a pompadour sharp enough to kill and fists quick enough to make sure nobody ever forgot who ruled the machines. He beat the kids at games, then beat them in real life, rigging joysticks and extorting tokens until the Palace became his personal kingdom.
Frank Peniston tried to walk away. He told himself this was kid stuff, just another playground brawl dressed up in neon. But when Rex tore the reflective vest straight off Frank's back and hung it on the prize wall like a trophy, everything changed.
With Ronald at his side, Frank prepares for war. Armed with modified Duck Hunt pistols, skee-ball grenades, and a claw machine lance, he storms the arcade in a battle that turns pixel dreams into shrapnel nightmares. Cabinets explode, tokens fly like confetti, and Rex finally meets Frank in the most brutal boss fight the joystick has ever seen.
Joystick Justice is Book 23 of the Frank Peniston Mysteries. Packed with satirical detective parody, over-the-top pulp action, and absurd noir humor, this is a mystery for fans of funny bizarro thrillers, vigilante pulp comedy, and small-town conspiracies with too much pizza grease.
Because in Welvin, justice is not free play. It costs twenty-five cents, exact change, no refunds.
