Meet Mr. Wright by Omar Scott

When notorious gangster Neil Wright got a sudden call late one evening, he never imagined he would be walking into a deadly ambush by a mysterious figure. Clinging to life in intensive care, he meets Sister Simmons. A peculiar nun doing her nightly rounds, praying for the sick and trying to save souls. Through her desperate pleas, she convinces Neil to confess his sins. Figuring he has nothing to lose, Neil decides to confess every dirty little secret. He takes her on a disturbing journey through his tumultuous life filled with murder, forbidden love, and betrayal as he ascends to the top of a criminal empire. But as his confession unfolds, Neil realizes this is no ordinary nun. Is Sister Simmons there to finish the job, or is his true enemy waiting for the right time to strike? Meet Mr. Wright is an intense and captivating narrative with an ending so explosive and clever, you'll never see it coming. (taken from Amazon description)

This is a gritty, dirty, heartfelt story of a man.  The part in the description above, actually only covers the very beginning and end of the book.  All of the stuff in the middle is where the real action is.  We get to travel through Neil's life with him.  We get to see behind the scenes, his thoughts and feelings.  Though his actions aren't what most people would lean towards, in this vast character study, we follow that path that leads him to these actions and  the way that he rationalizes them.

Lots of reviews of this book will tell you that the initial lack of editing was a real distraction.  This is true, but I'm sure that's been fixed by now.

Even though I wasn't in a hurry to jump in and read this book, I was glad that I did.  I'm not really into the whole gangster thing and the whole surprise ending didn't really surprise me.  What did surprise me is the way that I felt myself empathizing with Neil throughout the story.  People are just fascinating and Scott's character creations are top notch.