American Desperado is a 2011 book written by journalist Evan Wright and drug smuggler Jon Roberts, a subject of the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys.

American Desperado is the reminiscences of Jon Roberts (born John Riccobono), connected together by biographical sections written by co-author Evan Wright.

Doug Stanton, wrote, "Imagine if Mister Kurtz from Heart of Darkness sat down with Dick Cavett for a little chat about the nature of good and evil, empathy, fatherhood, violence, drugs, power, self-knowledge, women, family, the hero versus the anti-hero, freedom, imprisonment... Reading American Desperado is like being in a sumptuous ballroom somewhere and somebody lets loose a cobra across the cold, shiny floor – ‘Oops, there it goes, watch the hell out!’ Jon Roberts, the hero/anti-hero of this tale, is a shape-shifter: you can't really draw a bead on him even though his voice and Evan Wright's voice are singular and bell-clear; the story is a giant pane of smoked glass the color of silver and violet, and the story seems to change colors as you read.

Dangerous, darkly hilarious, hair-raising, and terrifically written, Wright's prose spills over with the kind of insane, brilliantly rendered detail and dialogue that make you want to call people at four in the morning and read out loud.

Fans wondering how Evan Wright would top himself after his balls-out performance in the Iraq War classic Generation Kill can rest assured.