It's one of the most exciting psychological thrillers of the West.

It's also, I believe, our first novel on this show.

I don't think we've talked about novels before.

The old woman was bare-headed, as always.

Her light-colored hair sparse and with gray patches,

smeared generously with grease, as usual,

was braided into a thin pig tail tucked under a comb of horn

that stuck out at the nape of her neck.

As a result of her small size, the blow came down on the crown of her head.

She cried out, but very weekly, and suddenly collapsed completely onto the floor,

although she'd managed to raise both hands to her head.

In one she kept hold of the pledge, then he struck her a second time and a third,

with all his might still using the butt of the axe and hitting her crown,

blood gushed forth as if from an overturned glass,

and her body tumbled backward.

He stepped away, let her fall, and then bent down to peer into her face.

She was already dead.

Her eyes were wide open, as if they wanted to jump out,

and her forehead and entire face were wrinkled and distorted by a spasm.

That is a passage from very early on in Dostoevsky's crime and punishment.

It's been said that this is a murder mystery in which the question is not who done it,

but why he done it, and most importantly, whether he's going to confess.

...