“John Kroger’s Convictions is the best book about being a federal prosecutor since Jeffrey Toobin’s Opening Arguments. It is an engrossing look at how some of the most famous criminal cases of our era were built and won, and probably the frankest discussion ever of the extraordinary ethical dilemmas that go with wielding the government’s crushing power over lives.”—Scott Turow, author of Limitations

"I have read dozens of books by and about prosecutors. Kroger's is one of the best."—Steve Weinberg, The Oregonian

"A thoughtful, compulsively readable assessment of the American justice system's struggles with the greatest social evils of our time . . . [Kroger] accomplishes more in a few hundred pages than many professional journalists and legal scholars achieve in a thousand."—Matt Buckingham, Willamette Week

“Convictions is many things at once, all brilliantly: a mob story, a drug kingpin story, a white-collar corruption story. But at its heart and most profoundly it is the coming-of-age story of a young man who has everything it takes to be great at his job, only to discover this isn't enough to do good in the world. Kroger wins here as he did in the courtroom—with simplicity and candor, passion and integrity, and a ferocious, persuasive intelligence.”—Susan Choi, author of American Woman

“As a former assistant district attorney, I can identify with John Kroger’s Convictions.  It is straightforward and truthful, and it shows life as it really is in the 'pit.'  This searching memoir is a suspenseful and enlightening reading for lay people and members of the legal profession alike.”—Joe Jamail, author of Lawyer: My Trials and Jubilations    

"Convictions is the extraordinarily intimate account of a prosecutor's coming of age. John Kroger takes readers by the hand and invites us to boldly face, along with him, the thriving parallel dystopia of the world's most dangerous criminals. Replete with fascinating detail that illuminated for me a maze of law enforcement issues that I'd never grasped before, this book is essential reading for an informed citizenry."—Terri Jentz, author of Strange Piece of Paradise

“Convictions is a mesmerizing account of federal criminal prosecution from the inside. John Kroger has been there, fighting the good fight against drug dealers, Mafia kingpins, and corporate sleazes. But the good fighter does not always win, and winning sometimes requires compromises along the way. For anyone interested in true crime and criminal justice, this is a must read.”—Peter Charles Hoffer, author of The Supreme Court:  An Essential History  and Distinguished Research Professor, University of Georgia

"A star federal prosecutor spills the dirt about the tough moral compromises his job required. If Kroger's life were a film, it would seem almost ridiculous: Rambunctious teen from the Houston suburbs signs up with the Marines for lack of anything better to do and ends up distinguishing himself in an elite Recon unit; graduates from Yale in philosophy, works as deputy policy director for Clinton's 1992 campaign, then gets a degree from Harvard Law; winds up a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn chasing down counterfeiters, putting mob assassins behind bars and helping dismantle what was left of New York's Five Families. A tough guy with a scalpel-like intellect and a streak of humility, Kroger tells his life story like it was no big deal. He truly doesn't seem to mind that 'federal prosecutors toil in obscurity.' Exhaustive and fair-minded accounts of several major trials he led show that those philosophy classes did not go to waste; Kroger constantly weighed the utilitarian needs of his job against Immanuel Kant's directive to treat every human being with complete respect. A later stint in narcotics (he states quite plainly that the government's drug policy is an abject failure) heightened his belief that no matter how good he was at his job, 'sometimes it is impossible to be both a great prosecutor and a good human being.' By the time Kroger found himself prosecuting one corner of the sprawling Enron case, he had come close to complete burnout . . . Kroger's assessment of the federal prosecutor's problematic, overly powerful role in the legal system is well-rendered and crisply delivered."—Kirkus Reviews