1. This book has a market across criminology and criminal justice, sociology and law. 2. While there is a healthy market for books on the death penalty, there is a gap for a book that offers a rigorous theoretical approach to making sense of the data. 3. While many studies have focused specifically on racial bias, this book considers a range of social characteristics and their impact on sentencing, including class, moral reputation and organizational status.

1. This book has a market across criminology and criminal justice, sociology and law. 2. While there is a healthy market for books on the death penalty, there is a gap for a book that offers a rigorous theoretical approach to making sense of the data. 3. While many studies have focused specifically on racial bias, this book considers a range of social characteristics and their impact on sentencing, including class, moral reputation and organizational status.

Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild boomtown. But problems followed the money and soon Bill was confronting both the wicked family of serial killers known as the Bloody Benders as well as his one-time friend Marc, having fallen into an affair with his beautiful wife Maggie. Bill then turned up alone in San Francisco in 1890, having to face a past from which he could not run.But what happened to him in those missing years? What happened to Maggie, to Bill, and their escape from the murderous Bender family?Hop Alley answers all those questions as we return to the Wild West and discover Bill Ogden, now living as Bill Sadlaw, running a photo studio near the Chinese part of town know as Hop Alley in the frontier town of Denver in 1878. Left by Maggie, Bill enjoys an erotic affair with Priscilla, a fallen singer addicted to laudanum, who is also seeing his friend Ralph Banbury, the editor of the local Denver Bulletin (neither man minds sharing). Bill's peaceful time away from Cottonwood turns anything but as he must confront the mysterious murder of his housekeeper's brother-in-law, the increasing instability of Priscilla as both men try to ease out of her clutches, and an all out-riot across Hop Alley. And when the body count starts rising, Bill will soon start wishing he had never left Cottonwood at all.Hop Alley proves that no one does the Wild West like noir master Scott Phillips.

Language is an essential part of what makes us human. Where did it come from? How did it develop into the complex system we know today? And what can an evolutionary perspective tell us about the nature of language and communication? Drawing on a range of disciplines including cognitive science, linguistics, anthropology and evolutionary biology, Speaking Our Minds explains how language evolved and why we are the only species to communicate in this way. Written by a rising star in the field, this groundbreaking book is required reading for anyone interested in understanding the origins and evolution of human communication and language.

The landscape of contemporary Paris, the best restaurants, the trendiest bars and clubs, is usually filled with the wealthy, the famous, and le rake or le roue, the charming, educated sophisticate with little or no conscience. Into this cushy world bursts  Dr. Crandall Taylor" or rather the actor who plays him the star of a dated American soap opera that is now one of the hottest primetime shows in France. And this newfound fame, as enriching as it is unexpected, is not wasted on Crandall, eager to put his dark and often violent American past behind him and enjoy all the fruits and the women that Paris and fame have to offer him.But TV fame isn't enough. Randall wants a feature film. Every actor wants a feature film, and so Crandall uses his charm and intellect to draw into his narcissistic web four different women: an executive at the network that runs his show; an American porn star reaching new heights on the internet; a bookish university student with a slightly nasty bent; and the beautiful would-be actress wife of an arms dealer. Against his better judgment, Crandall accepts both the arms dealer's cash and his beautiful wife's advances. Soon, Crandall is on the run through the alleys and streets of Paris, trying not only to fund a film but simply to stay alive. But this is no ordinary chase and Crandall is no ordinary mouse and soon his penchant for violence, sex, and megalomania erupts into full blown war.Rake is the latest noir classic from the author of The Ice Harvest. It features a charming, despicable anti-hero and a funny, satiric take on modern entertainment culture. Phillips turns his gimlet eye on the lush life of an actor who, on his destructive tour through Paris, crosses the line from garden variety narcissism into full-fledged psycopathy.

In Scoundrels, an all-original anthology featuring bestselling and Edgar and Shamus award-winning writers, you'll read stories of desperate grifters, brokers hedging big bets for the big take, schemers working the long con for the sure money, used car salesman with golden dreams and rusted hopes, crooked lawyers and bent clients, one percenters hustling for that last half-percent, kind-hearted killers and the lonely hearted who tell themselves any lie as the double down for the long count.

The war is over, but that doesn't mean things are getting better for PR man Wayne Ogden or any of the returning vets. The town of Wichita, Kansas built around the industry of Collins Aircraft and its wealthy founder, Everett Collins is not how they remember it. Against the background violence committed by the returning soldiers trying to make an adjustment back into civilian life, Wayne attempts to destroy his former mentor and take down Collins Aircraft the once fabled company that provided planes to Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Wiley Post. All along the way he is haunted by poison pen letters, anonymously sent, that carry threats alluding to his black market work as a supply sergeant in the Quartermaster Corps. As the letters reveal more and more of Wayne's secretive wartime past, his plan to destroy Collins and his company takes an increasingly darker turn that leads to blackmail, extortion, and murder. Phillips expertly crafts an instant noir classic that presents the birth of a postwar American criminal.

Confessions of an Expat is a script about the men and women who travel to Asia to see the world, all courtesy of their native language English which allows them jobs in private institutes and the ability to shape/warp young minds. From the airport arrival to beer-soaked nights, hangover days and the ever present feeling of being a fish out of water. Filled with kind-hearted teachers, spoiled students, horny housewives, drunken wretches, immigration officials, prostitutes and gangsters, Confessions of an Expat is as close to the experience of living and teaching overseas that you will come without actually getting on the plane.

Postmodernity allows for no absolutes and no essence. Yet theology is concerned with the absolute, the essential. How then does theology sit within postmodernity? Is postmodern theology possible, or is such a concept a contradiction in terms? Should theology bother about postmodernism or just get on with its own thing? Can it? Theologians have responded in many different ways to the challenges posed by theories of postmodernity. In this introductory guide to a complex area, editor Kevin J. Vanhoozer addresses the issue head on in a lively survey of what 'talk about God' might mean in a postmodern age, and vice versa. The book then offers examples of different types of contemporary theology in relation to postmodernity, while the second part examines the key Christian doctrines in postmodern perspective. Leading theologians contribute to this clear and informative Companion, which no student of theology should be without.

“BITTERLY FUNNY . . . [A] SLEEK FIRST NOVEL . . . NOIR CRIME . . . HAS FOUND A STERLING NEW CHAMPION IN PHILLIPS.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“A FUTURE HARD-BOILED CLASSIC–TIGHT, COLD, AND CACKLING WITH IRONY. On Christmas Eve [in Wichita], a mob lawyer is skipping town with the cash. But in this boozy, neo-noir world–James M. Cain meets George V. Higgins–the best-laid plans of bagmen turn brutal.”
–The Dallas Morning News

“OMINOUS, ACTION-PACKED. . . This is a confident, wry debut . . . [that] may remind readers of Fargo or Pulp Fiction.”
–Detroit Free Press

“I SIMPLY CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT SCOTT PHILLIPS WILL DO NEXT. [This] funny, tough first novel felt like it was written by an old pro, an Elmore Leonard we’ve never heard about who’s discovered a place where the criminals are really dumb, the low-lifes are oh-so-fun to watch and, if somebody just happens to get what he deserves, there’s no one to blame.”
–RICHARD RUSSO
Author of Straight Man

“A DARKLY COMIC, SOMETIMES BRUTAL PIECE OF NOIR FICTION.”
–The Denver Post

Finalist for the Hammett Prize