The Gracie Allen Murder Case was S.S. Van Dine's foray in writing a novel that would eventually become a screen play staring George Burns and Gracie Allen. Of all of Van Dine's books, I least liked this one. Though I do like the comedy of Burns and Allen, it did not translate well in this book, which may be one reason it was never made into a movie. However, this does not suggest that you not read this book, it is a good mystery with Philo Vance at his cynical and erudite best.

I am the author of this book and publisher of the second edition. I still have a number of new copies available for sale. This book contains the story of Allen Dale Farm, an historic farm in Shelby County, KY that was established in 1795 and has been in my family ever since. It highlights the several prominent families that intermarried with the descendants of John Allen of Frederick County, VA, whose widow Ann Pollock Allen is buried on the property. These families include the Polks, the Meriwethers, and the titled and revered Charette family of Brittany, France. Also included is the story of the nationally-renowned Jersey Cattle herd that was bred here.

The layout of the book may be appealing, and the graphics & charts too, but the contents are the reason I bought this book. I found many inconsistancies in the review question section where the answer key completely contradicts the text of the book. I also came across similar mistakes on the diskette. I am disappointed in the WB Saunders Company that they can publish a book of such importance which is unreliable and therefore useless.

I too, like a previous reviewer, noticed several errors in the self testing section of this book. Luckily I knew the correct answers and could spot them.

THIS BOOK IS COMPLETE! REVIEWING THIS BOOK IS FUN, EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND PICTURES IN FULL DETAILS. PLUS A DISK FOR REVIEW OVER 800 QUESTIONS.

I'm a 4th year undergraduate student in computer science and I just finished the Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms course that was based on this book.

I thought the book was horrible. It did little to help me understand anything but general ideas. Reading this book is like reading a volume of mathematical proofs. The authors speak in symbols.

What makes it much worse is that every page makes multiple references to other portions of the text that aren't on the facing pages. They might be one page turn away, but very often they are a few pages, or even chapters away!

The only reason I would keep this book is for the list of topics it covers.

This has to be the single worst textbook I have ever seen, in computer science or any other subject, and I don't even know where to begin with my complaints. First, the book is INCREDIBLY hard to follow since they constantly refere to earlier figures and algorithms simply by giving a number for it(not even a lousy page number), and you have to spend 75% of the time searching for it, only to find another one listed 2 sentences later. You would think they could have at least been courteous enough to provide a page number. Still it doesn't beat question 7.24 which states, "use the algorithm", the algorithm as it turns out is printed 20 pages earlier, but I suppose that they figured you have the ability to read their mind and should have known that. Seconly, they butcher the Java language. They just use sloppy code and static objects wherever possible, which is the polar opposite of what Java is supposed to be about, but then again, given the wretched state of the rest of the book, this comes as no surprise. Well, since I only have a limited space to fill, I'll bring it to a close. Do NOT under any circumstances consider purchasing this book, a dancing dog could teach you more about data structures and algorithms!

Note that the Preface starts with "This book is intended for an upper-division or graduate course..." and should be seen as such. In my School, we have more emphasis than average on algorithm analysis, so we are able to use this book at 3rd-year level (final year of our degree), but without a strong background, the book would fit a graduate course better. Some of the criticisms relate to use of pseudocode and inadequate diagrams. The latter is maybe a criticism of an introductory book, but is not applicable to an advanced book. Eye candy fools the reader into thinking they understand more than they do. Pseudocode as used in the book should not be a serious problem for more advanced courses. Detail is not left out to the extent that is sometimes the case in pseudocode. In any case, I worry about students who expect to be spoon fed. If you have to derive your own algorithm, the details aren't all provided for you -- you need to work them all out. I do however find it strange that in the 3rd edition, the authors changed to a Java-like pseudocode but didn't adjust array indexing to 0.
My only reason for not giving the book a 5 is that I have found a number of errors in the string matching algorithms. But even this is not unusual in algorithms texts; I would hope all readers would test (if not prove correct) any textbook algorithm before using it. Another thing I do not quite agree with is the relatively informal treatment of solving recurrences (using recursion trees) -- I would prefer that more formal approaches like the characteristic polynomial method were used.
On the whole, this book has a good balance between breadth and depth. Other than the bugs introduced in the string matching algorithms and the inadequate conversion to a Java-like notation, it is a significant improvement on the 2nd edition.
I recommend it strongly for courses where students already have a good algorithms background, and are ready for a more advanced course.
The last book I used, Fundamentals of Algorithmics by Brassard and Bratley, was much harder for my students. It developed a lot of mathematical material that was not used much in subsequent examples, and they found explanations hard to follow.