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.

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.

Proceedings of Evolang IX, the 9th International Conference on the Evolution of Language.The Evolang conferences are the leading international conferences for new findings in the study of the origins and evolution of language. They attract a multidisciplinary audience. The proceedings are an important resource for researchers in the field.

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.

The book charts the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact that it has had on the lives of young people and their communities, education systems, the teaching profession, governments and NGOs in postcolonial Pakistan. Drawing on the extensive knowledge and experience that the authors bring to these challenges - this case study of the 'broken promise' of education for sustainable development will have significant impact in post COVID-19 Pakistan, South Asia more broadly, and in other postcolonial development contexts around the world.

The book charts the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact that it has had on the lives of young people and their communities, education systems, the teaching profession, governments and NGOs in postcolonial Pakistan. Drawing on the extensive knowledge and experience that the authors bring to these challenges – this case study of the ‘broken promise’ of education for sustainable development will have significant impact in post COVID-19 Pakistan, South Asia more broadly, and in other postcolonial development contexts around the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.