1970s Vegas Noir: A Pulp Tale of Gambling, Mob Betrayal, and Desert Graves

In the neon-drenched underbelly of 1970s Las Vegas, Vince "Snake Eyes" Moreno—ex-cardsharp turned private eye—takes a case that hits close to home. His old pal Benny "Fingers" Lopez begs him to find his son Marco, a Tropicana dealer gone missing after a cryptic promise of a "big score." What starts as a favor turns into a descent through a desert of sin, where loan sharks like Vinnie "Teeth" Russo turn up dead with throats slashed, and fixers like Eddie "The Blade" Caruso deal in blood and betrayal. Armed with a .38 snubnose and a chipped Flamingo token, Vince uncovers a mob-rigged game tied to a stolen ledger—a prize worth killing for. Dodging bullets, bribing bent cops, and chasing leads from the Silver Slipper to the Sahara, he finds Marco buried in the dunes, a casualty of his own hustle. The ledger slips away in a hail of gunfire, leaving Vince battered but unbowed in Room 17 at the Desert Rose Motel. In this 15-snippet pulp noir odyssey, the house always wins, but Snake Eyes keeps rolling—cynical, sharp, and ready for the next hand in a city that never sleeps.