Crime and Punishment to coerce him to confess. The novel is divided into six parts, with an epilogue. The notion of "intrinsic duality" in "Crime and Punishment" has been commented upon, with the suggestion that there is a degree of symmetry to the book. Edward Wasiolek who has argued that Dostoevsky was a skilled craftsman, highly conscious of the formal pattern in his art, has likened the structure of "Crime and Punishment" to a "flattened X", saying: This compositional balance is achieved by means of the symmetrical distribution of certain key episodes throughout the novel's six parts. The recurrence of these episodes in
The Crime Book described the crimes detailed in the book as having "such diversity that there is something for everyone. ... I can’t think of one crime that’s not represented in The Crime Book. It runs the gamut—from nonviolent cons to gangland-style criminals, to white-collar offenders—with a complete representation starting with the first known homicide committed against a Neanderthal man. Simply put, you can’t make this stuff up." "Rolling Stone" magazine's description, in an August 2017 interview with co-author Scott about the book, wrote that it is "an encyclopedic treatment of the topic (that) makes for excellent companion reading. A compelling compilation of