There are places in Sin City where the neon lights don't reach. - Sin City
Sin City by Jennifer Samson and M. B. Miller, is a series of crime/romance novels set in 1960s and 1970s Las Vegas.
The first book, Sin City, takes place in 1966 Las Vegas when 19-year-old Ruby Gordon moves in with her older brother and meets Tim Kelly, who’s is aiming to build his own mob empire in Las Vegas without getting killed by the Chicago Outfit. The second book, Tilt, takes the spotlight off Ruby and Tim and focuses it on the rest of the cast.
Neon and Tinsel, published December 2017, is a novella describing the gang at Christmas.
Sin City contains examples of:
- The '60s
- Abusive Parents: Many of the cast have these, with Frank Kelly being arguably the worst parent.
- All Girls Want Badboys: Ruby and Darla in particular. Diana with Ray, though he deliberately turns down his "bad boy" characterstics.
- Aloof Big Brother: Tim doesn't pay a lot of attention to Diana, and when he does, it's when she doesn't want him too.
- Asshole Victim: Jake after Darla leaves and Tim after Ruby cheats on him.
- Badass Crew: Tim's gang and the Chicago Outfit.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Tim and his gang toward the police
- Big Brother Instinct: Tim and Rett towards Diana and Ruby.
- Break the Cutie: The entire book for Ruby, especially the end. Prior to the events of the book, a male classmate uses her to win a bet. Then her half-brother puts her to work in his underground bar/hotel and Ray harrasses her.
- Break the Haughty: This happens to Tim.
- But Not Too Foreign: Jimmy Lewis is half-Mexican, half-Irish
- Big Brother Instinct: Rett toward Ruby
Rett: I don't want to have to put china back together anymore.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Tim can't return Ruby's declaration of love.
- Cockfight: This is pretty much how Jake and Tim greet each other.
- Converse with the Unconscious: Ruby and Tim. Ruby also kisses the unconscious.
- Crapsack World
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Jake to Darla.
- Cry into Chest: Ruby does this to Jake.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!
- Dark and Troubled Past: The motivation for most of the cast's actions.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Poor Ruby. Between her dead mother, absent father and difficulty making friends, she'll take any scrap of affection she can get.
- The Dutiful Son: Bill.
- Dysfunctional Family: Tim has a alcoholic father, a truant sister and his mother might be having a affair with their priest. Ruby's father is always on the road. Jake's mother abandoned him as a child and his father committed suicide after his younger brother died. It's shorter listing the characters who don't have this.
- Dysfunction Junction
- Fire and Ice Love Triangle: Jake, Tim and Ruby form one of these. Jake thinks he, Tim and Darla formed one as well.
- Frame-Up: Tim frames Bill for robbery to stop him from going to Vietnam.
- Gas Lighting: Poor Rett.
- Good Parents: Darla, Bill and Brenda, and Jimmy have good relationships with their parents, who only want them to be happy, a rarity in these books.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: One Goodreads reviewer has commented that the characters are a bunch of "not-so-nice people doing not-so-nice things for what they believe are very good reasons."
- Evil Prince: Ray for Diana.
- Justified Criminal: Tim and his gang are this.
- Lady Killer In Love: In the background, Jimmy, who claims his hobby is women, falls in love with Marilyn and wants to become the person she sees in him.
- Local Hangout: Rett's bar.
- Love Hurts: Tim and Ruby
- Love Martyr: Darla and, to a lesser extent, Ruby.
- The Mafia: The Chicago Outfit.
- The Mentor: Sam Wyatt to Tim.
- Misplaced Retribution: Jake toward Ruby when Darla leaves. Also Tim towards Ruby when she sleeps with Jake while having a panic attack.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Jake suspects Darla of cheating on him with Tim and Jimmy.
- Missing Mom: Part of Jake's backstory is that his mom abandoned him for a chance at a career in Hollywood.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Tim to Ray. To a lesser extent, Rett to Tim, though it's just as ineffectual.
- New Old West: Takes place in Nevada.
- Nice Guy: Rett and Bill are some of the very few genuinely and consistently nice characters in the book.
- No-Tell Motel: Rett's roadhouse.
- One Phone Call: Tim makes one to Bill after getting arrested for not having a license to drive a trailer.
- Outlaw Couple: Tim and Ruby hijack a tractor trailer together.
- Parental Neglect: Ruby's father drops her off with a half-brother she barely knows to go on the road full-time.
- Pitbull Dates Puppy
- Roll in the Hay: Ruby confesses to this with her ex-boyfriend, Lewis.
- Scars Are Forever: Tim has significant scarring on his face from when he was beaten by the Chicago Mob.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Ray's reason for hating Tim. Subverted as Ray initially just wanted an in the the Kelly family, but ended up genuinely hating Tim.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Tim and Diana.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Tim and his gang aren't taken particularly seriously by the Chicago Outfitters. Most of their actual criminal activities are Ray's idea, whereas Tim is mostly a minor annoyance to local authorities.
- Smug Snake: Ray Roth
- Thicker Than Water: Tim tells Diana only cops will take him away from her.
- Vice City: The setting is the Strip in Las Vegas, often in Rett's underground bar/hotel.
- The Quiet One: Tim deliberately withholds information and speaks as little as possible.
- What Does She See in Him?: Darla wonders this about Ruby and Tim in "Neon and Tinsel".
