Henry Hook is one of the most devious and creative cryptic constructors in the world, and these collections show that he can be among the most prolific, too. Although there are some puzzles here that are pleasantly solvable, there are some that will challenge even the most jaded cryptic aficionado. And Hook's trickery depends on forcing solvers to look at words and letters in new ways, but his clues always play fair -- no mismatch of tense or parts of speech, no extraneous words, and no words used twice (once in the definition and once in the wordplay) -- errors that some other constructors, even very well-regarded ones, allow themselves with regularity.

I just discovered Henry Hook after many years of doing the Harper's Puzzle by Richard Maltby, Jr. These are excellent cryptics, and great fun to do. If you like the Harper's puzzle you will love these. Very very hard.

The most varied and interesting of cryptic puzzlers, Hook surpasses himself in this last edition. But when will we see a new one?

If you are debating whether or not to get this book, get it. There are 70 puzzles, all of them fun and challenging. Not quite as hard as Hook's cryptics crosswords, but still it will keep you busy for a month or so. Really enjoyed it.

The puzzles in this book are delightful gems, half the size (and half the solving time) of regular cryptics, but completely up to Henry Hook's usual standards of trickery and deviousness.

These are fun puzzles, challenging enough to be amusing, but not so difficult you want to give up on them. New Englanders may find these particularly enjoyable since many clues and sometimes entire puzzles are Boston-related. The spiralbound books are easy to handle and write in, and all puzzles are "one pagers" so there's no turning back and forth.

When I was in the Peace Corps in Africa, my friend's mom used to clip and send the crossword puzzles from the Boston Globe. I was hooked! They're the best--interesting, just the right level of difficulty to do with the morning coffee. I end up looking up a word or two each and time and learn something, but they're not so hard I can't finish them. I was delighted to find collections of them.

These are fun puzzles, challenging enough to be amusing, but not so difficult you want to give up on them. New Englanders may find these particularly enjoyable since many clues and sometimes entire puzzles are Boston-related. The spiralbound books are easy to handle and write in, and all puzzles are "one pagers" so there's no turning back and forth.

When I was in the Peace Corps in Africa, my friend's mom used to clip and send the crossword puzzles from the Boston Globe. I was hooked! They're the best--interesting, just the right level of difficulty to do with the morning coffee. I end up looking up a word or two each and time and learn something, but they're not so hard I can't finish them. I was delighted to find collections of them.

While I'm not a huge fan of crostics (I find them pretty tedious to solve, with all of the back-and-forth in writing letters), I tried this book since I often enjoy Henry Hook's puzzles.

So far, I've finished over half of the puzzles and haven't had use references to finish any of the crostics. They do get easier in some ways as you get further into the book since he uses a lot of the "tricks" more than once. There have been a few that I was stuck on temporarily but I managed to work through it.

I probably would've given this five stars if it wasn't for the lack of variety in the trivia questions and topics, which made it seem a little repetitious eventually.

If you know and love cryptic crossword puzzles, this book really doesn't need a review. You already know Henry Hook and his puzzles, and know whether you like them or not.

For the cryptic-crossword neophyte, this book offers a brief--possibly too brief--introduction to solving cryptic clues before launching into the puzzles. If you're just starting out with cryptics, you'll probably feel you're in over your head very quickly. (However, many people who like cryptics ENJOY feeling in over their head.) I'd recommend the Random House Cryptic books as a better starting point, because they open with some really simple puzzles (though by the end, they get trickier than the puzzles in this treasury).

The book's seventy puzzles are relatively tame (as cryptics go), with the occasional really-obscure light or the "how-on-earth-does-THAT-parse?" clue, but nothing that'd pose a problem for your semi-seasoned solver. The last dozen or so puzzles venture into variety formats--I'd have preferred more variety puzzles, but tastes vary on this count. In the end, this book is no sumptuous feast of verbal bedevilment, but it is a good bread-and-butter type fix for your cryptic cravings.

Many of the newly-released Osprey titles are delightful to read or expand our knowledge of less well-known subjects. This entry is neither. Its text is undistinguished, its color illustrations poor, and its technical content execrable! The latter is particularly annoying in light of claims that the author is a "curator at the Royal Armories at Fort Nelson." Obvious errors abound. Some are typographical -- "7.62mm" mortars, "60-pounder" cannon, 1910 transmuted to 1901 in the same paragraph, and the "Write" airplane engine (invented by the Right brothers)-- but this begs the question, doesn't Osprey have any editors? Weapons/equipment data are awful: one photo shows a Model 93 Mauser rifle "in 7.65 mm, the standard" (caliber). In point of fact, all 93's were made in 7x57mm which was the standard; another shows a (1937) "Lanchester submachine-gun copy." This would be a remarkable feat, since the Lanchester was invented in 1941! (The gun is a copy of a German Bergmann). Some weapons are pure fantasy: the "Czech 7.62mm Mannlicher," for example. Likewise, aircraft and tank data differ from that found in easily accessible references. Since the numbers/types of aircraft used are at variance with other sources, this makes his Order of Battle (strengths and organization) information highly suspect. If the author has a real understanding of the strategic significance of this battle, he does not make it clear to the reader. His battle analysis is awkward, and its accuracy is highly suspect. Overall, the book has no credibility and should owe several stars!

The book is well writen and documented. The Ebro is possibly the most famous battle of the Spanish Civil War, and some of its images are classical icons of that period of history as the Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" or the Robert Cappa's picture of the fallen militia men. Its very clear in its explanations of the strategies and the development of the actions from both parts. At the same time, it had a lot of pictures from the places were the fight took place, so the reader can grasp a very good idea of the battles.

Nevertheless it has some flaws. The most important in my opinion is the low detail of the campaing main map in page 30. Some villages, mountain ridges and roads that are later named in the text, are missing in this map. Even for a spaniard is difficult to locate those places without the help of a map. The explanation of the objetifs of the Republican side is confussed due to this lack of detail. Another is the few pictures of the leaders from both sides. In other Osprey books the leader section usually depicts a lot of pictures of the leaders, but here you can see only three and in one of them only the back of a nationalist leader instead of his face. Finally, if has the typical english mistakes with the spanish names (Is so hard to check an spanish atlas?). The most funny is the name of the source from some pictures. You can read "Partido Comunista Española" instead of "Partido Comunista Español". Well, in spanish language as opposed to english language, some things and its adjetifs have gender. For example "a red table" is in spanish a "female" thing (una mesa roja). A political party is a "male" thing. So it was delightful to check that a posible translation for the PCE is the Comunist Party of Spanish Woman.

Despite those things I recomend its lecture even for those not interested in pure military history but only in the spanish modern history.

I thought this book dealt pretty well with an unknown battle from the Spanish Civil War. Up to now there are few books on the military campaigns and this one plugs the gap.
There are a few errors in the text but judging by the bibliography the author has attempted to look at a wide range of sources.