A serial killer is the object of a serious psychological study in the novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The alienist in the nineteenth century was an expert in mental pathology. In this story, set in 1896, the alienist is Llazo Kreizler, hired by Theodore Roosevelt, then Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. Mr. Roosevelt was intent upon apprehending the serial killer of the young boys caught in the web of an unsavory lifestyle. As Kreizler tries to develop a characterization of the nature of the killer, a woman on his handpicked staff suggests that the primary clue to understanding this warped personality is that he had been abused by or totally rejected by his mother. At first Kreizler ignores the suggestion. Later he has good reason to capitulate to the suggestion, and th…