History Literature / Nightside

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Rossignol invokes this trope on-stage. Lilith's manifested body takes it UpToEleven, so monochrome that she looks like she walked out of a black-and-white movie.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There's lots of interesting little minor characters that pop up and frequently meet nasty ends. As we tend to meet three or four new recurring ''major'' characters per book, this adds up to quite a list of series regulars, too.

* ExactyExtyYearsAgo: Taylor keeps track of Eamonn Mitchell's various versions in ''Paths Not Taken'' by guessing at their ages, then tagging them "Eamonn 20", "Eamonn 40", etc.

* ExtyYearsFromNow: Taylor keeps track of Eamonn Mitchell's various versions in ''Paths Not Taken'' by guessing at their ages, then tagging them "Eamonn 20", "Eamonn 40", etc.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: Timeslips, which just happen. [[spoiler:Until we find out that they don't just happen. Suddenly and messily.]]

** Subverted with Harry Fabulous, who ''claims'' he's trying to atone for his sleazy past, but seems to spend most of his time making equally-sleazy deals.

* TyrannosaurusRex: John and Bettie have to get past one in ''Inquirer''.

* [[spoiler:BabiesEverAfter: May soon apply to John and Suzie, after events of ''A Hard Day's Knight''.]]

* CelibateHero: For most of the series, both John and Suzy are this, enforced by Suzie's trauma. Somewhere between books 9 and 11, however, [[spoiler:they get it on enough that Suzie has shown John some combat holds ''as foreplay,'' and she's now pregnant]].
* ChekhovsGun: In ''Unnatural Inquirer,'' and specifically that book's BatmanColdOpen, Taylor sets out on a mission from Walker to hunt down a man using an artifact to mess with the Loa. Normally in situations where Walker gets involved, he takes whatever he's after... [[spoiler:which is why no one remembers the Aquarius Key until John uses it against the BigBad of the book.]]

* ChekhovMIA: In ''Uncanny,'' at least two references to Excalibur are made by two different people. Taylor notes that no one has seen the sword since Arthurian times, and that even the Collector doesn't have it since he'd have gloated over it. [[spoiler:Guess what shows up in the mail by the end?]]

* DeusExMachina: In ''Judgment Day,'' after making a bit of a mess on the Street of the Gods, the Walking Man comes into conflict with one [[spoiler:Razor Eddie]]. Subverted in that, despite coming from nowhere, our hygenically-challenged friend only comes to a stand-still with the Wrath of God in question, and is ultimately beaten.

** In the BatmanColdOpen to ''A Hard Day's Knight,'' [[spoiler:John realizes a bunch of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s are trying to get into this universe using a human soul as a bomb. John weaponizes him, the pocket watch he took from Walker, and the Gateway they opened to send him a message and knocks their socks off.]]

* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: Subverted in [[spoiler:''Sharper.'' Lilith attempts to pull this off, but is stopped by her son and the men who brought her into the world]].
* EntropyAndChaosMagic: Magic that influences probability comes up a lot. In the third book there's a ButterflyOfDoom that lets the holder use this. Later on, a man gets haunted by his own alternate selves, who want him to become them.

** When the living Merlin shows up from [[spoiler:Sinister Albion,]] Alex freaks out, thinking no one and nothing can take him on. ''Off the top of his head,'' John spouts off three names that he's dealt with in the past. Subverted, of course, since John proves he's as big a badass as any of them.

** In a short story published in ''Unusual Suspects,'' the two main characters throw out names of potential suspects for the serial killings; the Bloody Man, Arnold Drood, is mentioned, but then excluded because his family already took him out (specifically, Eddie Drood took care of him).
** In a "blink and you'll miss it" moment, in ''Agents,'' Taylor mentions some of the texts in the Vatican library, including the ''Testament of Grendel Rex.'' Grendel Rex is actually [[spoiler:a Drood turned into a [[AGodAmI self-proclaimed god]] now buried in Siberia]].

** ''Bride'' doesn't let the trend die, especially in the BatmanColdOpen, wherein we meet the Bride and Springheel Jack from ''From Hell With Love,'' as well as one of the last Immortals. [[spoiler:Turns out that he was there to kill his distant, half-immortal relative, the King of Skin. He also drops the bomb that the Droods are dead, except for Eddie]]. Also, the Carnacki Institute gets a couple mentions, with one of their ex- (and possibly excommunicated) employees, and John mentioning that he picked up a few tricks from [[Literature/CarnackiTheGhostFinder Carnacki]] himself.

* MundaneFantastic: Living in the Nightside is pretty much this.

* NoodleIncident: In ''Sharper,'' John mentions that he once attempted an angelic summoning to learn about his enemies. We don't know exactly what happened/went wrong, but apparently there ''used'' to be a hotel at the site, and it's still radioactive.
** Between ''Nightingale'' and ''Sharper,'' Razor Eddie is MIA on the Street of the Gods. We never quite find out what he was doing there, but he made a lot of gods run out weeping, which is saying something. Also, besides redemption for using the Speaking Gun, he manages to [[spoiler:[[TookALevelInBadass "get an upgrade."]]]]

* [[spoiler:OneLastJob]]: As John won't have enough time to be both [[spoiler:Walker and a PI]], he asks his teen secretary to [[spoiler:find him one last case to go out on]].As it turns out, [[spoiler:it's Walker's wedding present, allowing him to go out of the PI business with a bang]].

* RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun: Done with Walker's aforementioned Voice. He's getting sick of it.[[spoiler:He only brought the dead back once. Considering how many ''other'' examples of people communicating with and/or summoning the dead have shown up in Green's Verse, Walker's frustration is justified. It's ''not that special'', people, honestly!]]

* RevengeBeforeReason: Kae wants to take out Merlin for not being at Arthur's final battle in ''Paths.'' [[spoiler:Due to his interference, when John finds out that Kae is running the Knights of London, he worries that Kae may want this towards him. But Kae subverts this; 1500 years undoubtedly helped.]]

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: [[spoiler:Pretty Poison.]] Harm Sinner, threaten Sinner, look cross-eyed at Sinner, and you are '''dead.''' [[spoiler:As a succubus demon from Hell, she can do a ''lot'' of damage.]]

* YouCantFightFate: Implied in ''Just Another Judgment Day.'' Despite [[spoiler:defeating his mother and destroying the Speaking Gun, the future he saw in the Timeslip may be coming still. The "Enemies" are the new Authorities, and the Speaking Gun can't really be destroyed due to its nature and that of the Nightside]].

** John spent most of ''Uncanny'' fighting Walker's offer to be, well, Walker. [[spoiler:By the end of ''Bride,'' he hangs up his coat and takes a walk around the Nightside in a suit.]]

* ContinuityNod: Not as blatant as most of Green's CanonWelding, but in ''Unnatural Inquirer'', Taylor's narration mentions how the failure of one of the Nightside's common BiggerOnTheInside magical effects can cause buildings to collapse. This is exactly what happened in one of his ''Hawk And Fisher'' novels, when the titular cops busted a drug ring and the dealers let their space-expansion spell lapse to cover their tracks.

* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover / CanonWelding: The Nightside is explicitly in the same universe as ''Shadows Fall'' and ''Drinking Midnight Wine'', and there have been cameos from those books. In ''[[Literature/SecretHistories From Hell With Love]]'' Methuselah was in the Nightside during the events of ''Agents of Light and Darkness'' and steals an angel's hand, then makes it into a HandOfGlory. The Street of Gods first appeared in the quasi-medieval ''Literature/HawkAndFisher'' series, which is in continuity with ''Literature/BlueMoonRising'', and its first sequel gave us the Walking Man. Haceldama from the ''Literature/{{Deathstalker}}'' space opera crops up as a possible subway destination, as does Shadows Fall. As of ''Daemons are Forever'', his Literature/SecretHistories series also, officially, crosses over with his ''Literature/{{Deathstalker}}'' series, [[spoiler:when Edwin enlists Giles Deathstalker for help]]. A certain down-on-his-luck detective, whom Edwin won his houseboat from in a poker game, is also mentioned in "The Man with the Golden Torc" and Walker is a major character in "The Spy Who Haunted Me".

* OrganTheft: One of John's staple threats is to offer to do this to someone's favorite organs with his Gift, ''while they're alive and conscious''.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Elves used to rule this world, but we beat them by out-reproducing them, so most of them left.

** The soulbomber from ''Knight'' was turned into one of these.

Green's final ''Nightside'' novel, ''Night Fall'', was released in June 2018 as a {{Doorstopper}} crossover with his ''Literature/SecretHistories'' series, and i(barring future short stories) serves as a GrandFinale for both.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: Elves used to rule this world, but we beat them by out-reproducing them, so most of them left.

Green's final ''Nightside'' novel, ''Night Fall'', was released in June 2018 as a {{Doorstopper}} crossover with his ''Literature/SecretHistories'' series, and is intended (barring future short stories) to serve as a GrandFinale for both.

* ''[[WeddingDay The Bride Wore Black Leather]]'' (2012)

** Alex once mentioned having had the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in his bar, playing bridge. Guess [[Discworld/TheLightFantastic Twoflower's card-playing lesson]] must've sunk in after all...

Green's final ''Nightside'' novel, ''Night Fall'', has been announced for June 2018 as a {{Doorstopper}} crossover with his ''Literature/SecretHistories'' series, and is intended (barring future short stories) to serve as a GrandFinale for both.

* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:Walker]] does this when he murders [[spoiler:his oldest friend, the Collector]].

* TheRock: Shadow Deep, the Nightside's penitentiary. We don't get to see it, but John can't help but shudder when it's mentioned. Though such is the nature of criminals in the Nightside that we hear about it more when someone breaks out (Notable exchange: "Why didn't he get the chair?" "He did. It didn't take."), so in a strange way it's going through its own WorfEffect.

** Somewhere along the way, the Collector seems to have acquired [[Series/ThePrisoner Number Six's]] jacket, and he claims he has his spy car too.

** A helpful [[Series/TheAddamsFamily animated hand]] once wiped down the bartop at Strangefellows. With a [[StarTrek tribble]].

** The end of "Hungry Heart" has John paraphrasing Film/TheMalteseFalcon when describing the entity inside the Hungry Heart box, claiming it's "the stuff screams are made of".

** So who was [[ThePhantomOfTheOpera that masked Frenchman]] who gave them a lift on the underground river in ''Hex and the City''?