While the text is well done, less care appears to have been taken over the figures and schemes, particularly those in the early chapters. Some reactions span both left and right margins for no apparent reason, reaction arrows in some cases appear to be bonded to reactants or reagents and the lengths of reaction arrows and double bonds are not consistent. Structures of cyclic compounds such as benzene and polycyclic derivatives are drawn in large scale initially and on a smaller, more aesthetically pleasing, scale in subsequent pages. Cycloalkanes are shown with strange bond lengths, and substituents appear to have unusual geometries. Because the tetrahedral nature of bonding in carbon has been discussed previously in the text, such figures could easily confuse the reader. The later chapters of the book have none of these issues with diagrams presented in a very clear, precise, and structurally correct manner (contrast the structures of sugars in chapter 10 to the cyclopentanes of Chapter 2, for example). In addition, although this is the third edition of this text, a number of significant errors still are to be found throughout and careful reading is required so that students can correct their texts and so avoid confusion.

In conclusion, this is a very readable text that not only provides a good understanding of organic chemistry and biochemistry but also attempts to relate these topics to current issues of interest. The figures could have been drawn with more thought toward the overall presentation of the book because this is an area that many texts are trying to improve upon. Nevertheless, the book does meet its aims of providing a good basic introduction to organic chemistry and, as such, deserves consideration as a text for the student first exposed to this subject.