Somme Sketcher’s Sinners Anonymous (2021) is a dark mafia romance that gained significant popularity on social media platforms like TikTok. The novel tells the story of Rory Carter, a young woman who agrees to marry an aging and cruel mafia capo, Alberto Visconti, in a desperate bid to protect her father and her hometown of Devil’s Dip. Her already precarious situation is complicated by the return of Alberto’s nephew, Angelo “Vicious” Visconti, a dangerously attractive man from Rory’s past who also happens to run the anonymous confession hotline where she has revealed all her secrets. The novel explores themes of Confession as a Mechanism for Power and Control, The Negotiation of Agency in a Patriarchal World, and The Corrupting Nature of Power and Relativity of Morality.

As the first book in the series, the novel fits squarely within the conventions of its subgenre, featuring a morally compromised antihero and a transactional relationship fraught with high-stakes danger. The series continues with Sinners Condemned and Sinners Atone. Sketcher, a UK-based author who writes under a pen name, is also known for the East Coast Devils mafia romance series. Sinners Anonymous is a USA Today bestseller and an Amazon top 20 bestseller, reflecting its widespread appeal among fans of dark romance.

This guide is based on the 2021 Somme Sketcher e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of suicidal ideation, sexual violence and/or harassment, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content, cursing, and illness or death.

Plot Summary

Nine years before the main events of the story, Angelo Visconti attends the funeral of his parents, Maria and Alonso. Alonso was both the local church deacon and the capo—or a high-ranking member of a mafia family—of the Devil’s Dip Cosa Nostra. At the committal service overlooking the sea, Angelo reflects on the hypocrisy of his family and the sanitized version of his parents’ love story. He is enraged by a group of locals watching the burial disrespectfully and pulls a gun on them before his Uncle Alberto intervenes. Alberto informs Angelo that he is now the new capo. However, after the service, Angelo tells his brothers, Raphael “Rafe” and Gabriel “Gabe,” that he is abandoning his role and returning to his life in London. He secretly pays a gravedigger to exhume his mother’s coffin, believing she should not be buried beside his father.

In the present, Rory Carter stands on the same cliff, confessing aloud that she does “bad things.” A handsome stranger, who is revealed to be Angelo, appears and cryptically warns her that suicide is a sin. Afterward, Rory uses a nearby phone booth to call the Sinners Anonymous hotline and leave a confession. Rory is engaged to Alberto Visconti, the cruel and controlling new capo. At a tense Friday night dinner, Alberto’s sons are present: the underboss Dante, who despises Rory, the charismatic Tor, and the consigliere Donatello, with his kind wife, Amelia. Dante taunts Rory about building a spa that will destroy a rare bird habitat, revealing her passion for wildlife. The argument escalates until Angelo arrives, and Rory recognizes him as the man from the cliff. Later, Alberto physically assaults Rory in a hallway, warning her not to embarrass him and threatening her father’s medical care.

At an after-dinner party, Rory’s escort, Max, explains Angelo’s history. Angelo’s father used the church confessional to blackmail locals, and after his parents died in the same week, Angelo went “straight” and moved to London, abandoning his succession as capo. Angelo later catches Rory stealing a pearl necklace but returns it to her.

Angelo meets his cousins Dante and Tor in Devil’s Dip. He observes Rory’s escort, Max, leaving her unattended, which leads him to mistakenly believe she is cheating on Alberto. The following Sunday, Rory snoops in Alberto’s office after overhearing him discussing changes to their contract and is caught by Angelo, who covers for her. When Max pressures Rory for sexual favors, Angelo witnesses the exchange. During lunch, Angelo shoots and kills Max at the table, claiming Max confessed to treason via the Sinners Anonymous hotline. Rory faints and later learns from Alberto’s son, Leonardo, that Angelo and his brothers run the very same hotline, giving them access to all her confessions.

A flashback reveals that Sinners Anonymous is a modern version of a “game” the Visconti brothers played as teenagers, punishing sinners whose confessions they overheard at their father’s church. As the brothers’ monthly Sinners Anonymous ritual continues, with Gabe at one point orchestrating a sadistic hunt for a sinner in Connecticut, a dangerous attraction develops between Rory and Angelo. At a club opening, Rory entrusts her friend Tayce with stolen valuables to fund her father’s care if anything happens to her. In a private office, Angelo confronts Rory and makes her pleasure herself while he watches but does not touch her. Later, Angelo offers to escort Rory to see her father. He takes her to the Devil’s Preserve, where she reveals her father, Chester, has dementia and only recognizes her within the familiar forest. This explains her desperation to protect the land. In the abandoned church, Angelo spanks Rory with his belt as a form of “atonement” for her sins.

At her engagement party, Angelo confesses to Rory that he killed his own father, Alonso, after discovering he had ordered the hit on his mother. The night before her wedding, a drunk Alberto punches Rory and reveals that their contract is a sham, as the Preserve actually belongs to Angelo. At a tense dinner, Alberto humiliates Dante by praising Angelo. When Alberto demands Rory come to his bedroom, she confronts Angelo on the beach, begging him to stay and protect her. He promises a plan but will not commit to staying permanently. To spite him, she goes to Alberto’s room, and in response, Angelo blows up Alberto’s Rolls Royce.

The family moves to a safe house, where Dante accuses Angelo of the bombing. Tor and Rory provide a false alibi, which Rafe solidifies with a fake confession from a pool cleaner on the Sinners Anonymous hotline. Believing Angelo has left town for good—and cryptically encouraged by Gabe, who is aware of her plan from her confessions—Rory escapes on her wedding day, planning to lure Alberto to the cliff and murder him. Angelo intercepts her at the cliff, revealing he is back to reclaim his position as capo of Devil’s Dip and declare Rory is now his. He goes to the Cove mansion, confronts Alberto, and reveals a recently amended will Alberto created, which names Angelo as the sole heir to the Cove empire. He then shoots and kills Alberto, using the will as leverage to force Dante to accept his new authority.

One month later, Angelo and Rory’s relationship flourishes. They marry at the Devil’s Preserve so her father can be lucid for the ceremony. That night, the Devil’s Dip port is blown up in an act of retaliation from the Cove clan. Angelo asks Rory if she is ready for the impending war, and she confirms that she is.