Finding Chandra by Scott Higham and Sari Horowitz

Chandra is Chandra Levy who disappeared in the summer of 2001 near Washington, DC. This is the story of her disappearance and, for a long time, the investigation of the main (and only) suspect, Gary Condit, a Congressman from California, with whom Chandry was having an affair.

The cover hype was that this book is "Washington's In Cold Blood.." Not even close. It was mildly interesting but no one emerged as a fully drawn character. As someone said on the radio this week in another context, but it applies here: "Washington is a seductive town..." It is, and power and sexual adventures and misadventures are common threads. Almost always, it has been powerful men who mesmerize the young women who come to work in Washington, and who then succumb to these men.

In the end, Gary Condit was not the murderer, but he lost his credibility, his power and position in Congress as the case remained unsolved for so long. The police were focused on Condit far too long, all the while ignoring most other suspects. The book makes that point and also focuses on Condit. Yet, there is almost nothing written about his family and how his behavior affected them, nor all that much written about Chandry. Don't write a book about such a case if so much is left unsaid.

Chandry's remains were found nearly a year later in Rock Creek Park, very close to where Ingmar Guandique had attacked other women during the spring and summer of 2001, but the news thrill and scandal of a married congressman who was involved sexually with a young woman who had disappeared preempted rational inquiry, or so it seems.

This is another sad story recounting the vulnerability of women from sexual predators, be they deviant and brutal and murderous or members of the powerful elite known as Congress.