The book by Pihlaja and Kleinpeter is another addition to the well known VCH series on Methods in Stereochemical Analysis. Its backbone is made up by Chapters 4A, B and C and 5.
Chapter 4A (77 pages, 88 references) is entitled 'Conformational and Configurational Analysis and Substituent Effects on the 13C NMR Chemical Shifts of Alicyclic Compounds'. This is, to say the least, misleading since the chapter comprises an extensive and extremely thorough overview of 13C NMR data for saturated six-membered heterocyclic systems. It ranges from 1,3-oxazines and 1,3-dioxanes to oxanes (tetrahydropyranes), including the corresponding thia analogues and the benzo-condensed systems isochromane and benzoxazine, and finally piperidines. Only a brief, sixpage section relates the conformational findings for these heterocycles to those for cyclohexane systems. The proper alicyclic structures are thus dealt with only on a comparative basis.
The same holds for Chapter 4B (48 pages), which deals with four-, five-and seven-membered heterocycles. Again, some cyclopropanes and cyclobutanes are included as reference data only. A final ten-page addendum merely touches upon alkaloids, terpenes, carbohydrates and nucleosides.
The discussion of the 'Origin of Stereoelectronic Substituent Effects' in Chapter 4C (14 pages, 63 references) is merely descriptive, uncritically enumerating the various interpretational approaches from the literature.
Chapter 5 (73 pages, 127 references) takes the reader on a sightseeing tour of how 'I3C Chemical Shifts' have in the literature been utilized as 'Probes in Configurational and Conformational Analysis'. This compilation is highly meritorious. Unfortunately, the tour is not a guided one, and there is a lack of definite or even critical standpoint of the authors.
The three final chapters, on 'Dynamic NMR Spectroscopy and Frozen Spectra', 'Application of 13C NMR to