Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Book

An in-depth look at the ambitious career and sudden disgrace of the former New York governor

With a combination of talent, hard work, connections, and family wealth, Eliot Spitzer built an amazing career. By his late forties, he'd gone from Princeton to Harvard Law to dramatic success as a prosecutor and attorney general to the governorship of New York. Many thought he would become the first Jewish president of the United States. Then came the prostitution scandal that shocked and mystified the nation.

Peter Elkind's definitive account gets at all sides of this complex man: the well-intentioned do-gooder, the aggressive lawyer, the hardball politician, the dutiful son, the loving husband and father, and the secretive "Client 9" of the Emperor's Club escort service.

Elkind interviewed dozens of key sources ranging from Spitzer's family, friends, and closest aides, to targets of his high-profile investigations, to central players in the prostitution ring. He reveals many groundbreaking new details about Spitzer's rise, his short time as governor, and the way his enemies plotted against him.

The result is a gripping, almost Shakespearean narrative-a tragedy of one man's noble intentions and fatal flaws and the powerful forces (both internal and external) that destroyed him.

The Washington Post - Brooke Masters

This well-written book provides an entertaining gallop through Spitzer's career as New York attorney general, followed by much closer scrutiny of his disastrous 13 months as governor and the prostitution scandal that sent him packing. Spitzer comes across as a hot-headed reformer who effectively used his prosecutorial powers to uncover and stop some bank and mutual fund abuses, but then proved unable to engage in the horse-trading and compromises critical to lasting political success…[Elkind] is a fantastic researcher who has used both his powers of persuasion and the freedom of information laws to full advantage.