Is rape an act of hate? Why are you 100 times more likely to be killed on your birthday? Might a casual Mars Bar prompt you to commit murder? And why should you steer clear of men with long ring-fingers? These and other equally intriguing questions are posed here by Adrian Raine.

THE ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE: The Biological Roots of Crime, by Adrian Raine. Allen Lane, 2013, 496 pp., $35 (hardcover)

The book is subtitled "The Biological Roots of Crime" and the larger part of it is an extensive and, despite the grim subject, entertaining account of the physiological factors that may have a role in antisocial behavior. Some, Raine argues, are evolutionary in origin.