Crystal structure determination. Second edition. By Werner Massa. Pp. xi + 210. Translated into English by Robert O. Gould. Berlin: Springer, 2004. Price EUR 44.95, USD 49.95. ISBN 3‐540‐20644‐2.

Acta Cryst. (2005). A61, 260–261 261 could be at least misleading. Two examples: (i) it would be helpful if it were specified that the given form of the third-rank piezoelectric tensor for the point group 2 (and m) refers to a special orientation of the twofold axis (and the plane m), and how the form of the tensor can change for different orientations; (ii) there is only one listed entry for the elasticity fourth-rank tensor for the tetragonal system while one has to distinguish between two tensor forms: one for the point groups 4mm, 4m2, 422, 4=mmm, and the other for the point groups 4, 4, 4=m. I would add that it is a pity that in the present third edition the author has not used the opportunity to update the presentation of ITA (Chapter 3) in accordance with the new fifth edition of the tables or to improve the quality of some of the figures (e.g. Fig. 2.1). Leaving these defects aside, I believe that the book will be useful both to graduate students in physics, chemistry and engineering who have an interest in structural crystallography and to experts seeking a review of numerical methods and implementation strategies. A great advantage of the book is that it is written in a style that makes it accessible also to material scientists whose background does not include structural crystallography. The main messages are clearly stated and not buried beneath technical details.