Linda Wolfe

Robert Chambers was tall, dark, good-looking, a prep school graduate.

Jennifer Levin, also a prep school graduate, was pretty, passionate, promising, on her way to college.

Her death at Chambers' hands became known as "The Preppie Murder" and captured the horrified attention not only of New York, where her body was found in Central Park, but of the nation as well.

In Wasted, Linda Wolfe tells the story of these two privileged young people and the glittering social milieu that brought them together -- a world of exclusive parties and clubs, where drugs, alcohol, and sex were pervasive, and parental authority virtually nonexistent.


Written with penetrating psychological insight and the pace and drama of a novel, here is the chilling tale of two lost children -- the handsome daring bad boy whose reputation made him seem even more glamorous than his looks, and the high-spirited, adventurous girl who longed to be part of his sophisticated circle -- and of the terrible tragedy that was spawned when they were drawn, as if inevitably, together.

Here, too, is the tale of their tormented parents, their puzzled friends, and two brilliant lawyers, locked in combat in a sizzling, suspenseful trial.

Linda Wolfe, who has been called by critic John Leonard, "one of our best reporters," spent close to three years investigating the backgrounds of Jennifer Levin and Robert Chambers, and the police work that led to Chambers' arrest and trial. Drawing both on inside information and unmatched access to the people involved, Wolfe has written a book of deep compassion and brilliant reporting, one which bears comparison to Truman Capote's classic In Cold Blood.