Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

I DIDN’T CHOOSE THE THUG BOOK, THE THUG BOOK CHOSE ME.

(Oh come on, you knew it was coming.)

No, this isn’t any sort of Glock-heavy tell-all. It’s a bit older than that, though it is one of the earliest places where the term is used. So that Tupac tatt kinda began here. Also, it was a blockbuster piece of ethnographic fiction – the main character is a composite of several killers – and it boasted Queen Victoria as a fan. So now you’ve got the image of QV eagerly devouring strangling lit to get out of your brain.

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