Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Hardcover - 2010

"Even if there weren't a prostitution thread, this would be a page-turner. Elkind's style is journalism at its best: well-reported but pared down, and full of colorful scenes."
-Samantha Henig, Newsweek.com

"The Eliot Spitzer story plays like a novel that might have been plotted by Theodore Dreiser and peopled with characters by Tom Wolfe. The governor of New York, aka "Mr. Clean", aka "the Sheriff of Wall Street", is transformed by a prostitution scandal into "the Luv Gov" and "Client 9." The tireless reformer compared to Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne; the moralistic square, who carried a briefcase in junior high, finds his much ballyhooed future as a possible presidential contender smashed to pieces, and the word "disgraced" seemingly permanently stapled to his name like a Homeric epithet."
-The New York Times

"Peter Elkind's Rough Justice, [is] an absorbing account of Spitzer's improbable journey from New York rich kid to celebrated Wall Street scourge - to infamous Client No. 9 of the Emperor's Club.
An editor at large at Fortune magazine and co-author of a book about the downfall of Enron Corp., Elkind captures the conflicting sides of Spitzer. He was an idealist who was genuinely outraged by the Wall Street pandemic. Yet Spitzer was also plagued by a volcanic temper and an over-caffeinated ego that was unable to keep his worst impulses in check."
-Los Angeles Times

"[Elkind] is a fantastic researcher who has used both his powers of persuasion and the freedom of information laws to full advantage. Readers are treated to the frantic e-mails of aides as they coped with Spitzer's foul-mouthed tirades and wild mood swings. The book also has the first interviews with the governor's favorite date from the Emperors Club prostitution ring."
-Washington Post