This book seeks to review the latest developments in the understanding of the genetics of malting barley by using acknowledged experts to identify the key developments in their fields. Unfortunately, it reads like nine separate reviews with little attempt to connect them, which is a shame as some are very good. The book omits, however, any treatment of malting as a system and connection to the end-user. Malting quality is treated as a series of additive effects whereas it is a balance between competing processes where the aim should be to produce just enough enzyme at the right time, not to maximize its production. There are many varieties that have satisfied the criteria discussed in this book but failed to make any market impact, which partly reflects conservatism in malting but also highlights laboratory performance, often based on <1000 grains, as a poor predictor of industrial performance when applied to billions of grains. Chapter 9 touches upon the diversity of the malting market with some conflicting objectives that depend upon the exact end product, and this should have been extended to the problems faced in industrial malting and the quality aspects required to meet the different brewing markets. The authors were under the impression that their figures would be printed in colour whereas they are all in black and white and so their impact is diminished. The copy editing is poor with many spelling and factual mistakes, which again decreases the impact. In summary, the book is an update of previous reviews and worth purchasing if you do not already have one of those.