The nightmare (or is it challenge?) that surely all reviewers face at one time or another is to be provided with a set of books that have little or nothing in common. Conversely, the nightmare that review editors face is to have these books collect dust in the same proportion as their conscience grows. The challenge is to reduce the proportion of guilt and dust in sufficient measure whilst at the same time avoiding posing an impossible task for the hapless reviewer. Though all have their merits to a greater or lesser extent, in this case the reader is left to judge for him- or herself whether there is much, if any, coherence to the books under review.