Confessions of a Thug

First published in 1839 and reportedly one of Queen Victoria's own favourites, Philip Meadows Taylor's classic novel gives voice to Ameer Ali, an imprisoned member of the real-life Thuggee cult, as he confesses his life story of robbery and ritual murder to a British officer. Drawing on Taylor's own experience as a police superintendent investigating the Thuggee networks of colonial India, the novel was the most influential English account of India before Kipling's Kim, and is credited with bringing the word 'thug' into the English language. Equal parts picaresque adventure and unsettling colonial-era crime narrative, it remains a landmark of nineteenth-century fiction about India. A must for readers of classic literature, colonial history, or the origins of the modern true-crime thriller.