LUKE KARAMAZOV

A psychopathic murderer with the improbable name of Karamazov (born: Searl) and the vocabulary of a psychiatrist, the product of a dysfunctional home and a raging competition with an older brother (also a multiple murderer), Searl agreed to submit to this interrogation for his own and society's benefit. Chillingly objective at times, he is never at a loss for words. Contradictory and a con artist, he is hard to pin down or figure out, although the author regularly interjects evaluations. Searl's five brutal murders, he says, have a ""technical interest"" to him. With one victim, Searl was surprised that the blood would ""shoot so far out of his head."" Another victim ""bounced a couple of feet in the air"" when shot. Searl functioned well in jail, where he became a celebrity and a trustee. Somehow, he was able to form attachments with two women, who both knew of his past misdeeds. The author has tried to be fair and balanced, but the subject here is unappealing and, once past his psychiatric secrets, not too interesting. An In Cold Blood approach to psychopathology, then. but with something missing.