Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystey by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz

The Never Ending Newspaper Story
Review by Kim Cantrell

If you even glanced at the news during early 2001, you undoubtedly heard the story of missing Washington intern Chandra Levy and her affair with former California Congressman Gary Condit.

From the moment she was reported missing, Condit was the prime suspect.

Not only was it his affair with Chandra, but his affairs with numerous women – and his strict demands of same about disclosing the relationship – that placed him in the unwelcome spotlight.

So much so that many believe D.C. officials overlooked a much more viable suspect.

Ingmar Adalid Guandique was convicted of attacking two women in D.C.’s Rock Creek Park. The locations of these attacks would be eerily similar to where Chandra’s body was found.

Washington Post reporters Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz set out to solve the murder of Chandra Levy once and for all in their May 2010 book Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery.

My thoughts? There’s quite a few.

First and foremost, wrong title. Very little of this book was actually about Chandra. A few details here and there, but nothing in-depth as those of us dedicated true crime readers enjoy.

And speaking of being marketed as “true crime,” I’ll just say wrong genre. This would be better placed in a the braggadocio journalists catergory. I grew really sick and tired of reading about how this journalist did this, this journalist did that. Just tell me the story about the crime, the investigation, the forensics, the arrests, and the trial. I could care less that Connie Chung landed the biggest “get interview” of her career.

The repetition was horrendous. You can read half of this book and you know everything there is to be said. The second half is nothing but a repeat of the first, just jumbled around.

I’ve got two recommendations when it comes to Finding Chandra: Higham and Horwitz should stick with newspaper reporting and true crime fans should skip this book.