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All malacologists will know the “Oliva problem”: how to identify an olive shell. Many are very variable and many names were introduced in the past, much obscuring their present valid taxonomic placement. Tursch & Greifeneder tackle this genus in all possible ways. After a prologue, the problems among Oliva are briefly addressed. The following discussion on “what is a species” and which definition do you use is very readable and interesting. The next chapters deal with collecting, generic position, the living animal, the shell structures, microstructure, color and patterns, architecture, ecology and ethology, shell measurements and the interpretation of data. For the collectors chapter 14 on the living Oliva species is the most interesting one. For every recognized “objective morphospecies”, in this case 74 species, many shell characteristics are mentioned, together with characters which differentiate species from closely similar ones. Information on the distribution, with map, is given. In a separate chapter a list of all names in the genus Oliva is given, together with the synonymy under the valid species. 29 b/w plates show many type specimens from various museums. A 20-page bibliography and index complete the text. 48 really impressive colour plates with figures of all the species of Oliva, often with many different forms of one species given, form an important part of this book.