That book isn't one of my favourites, the pictures are sometimes real bad with nonsense underwritings, the distribution maps aren't complete or take in old recordings(Eryx in the Milos archipel?) and the text isn't what I hoped it would be (too short). It's a nice book to have but a missed shot for sure. For mainland Greece I prefer the book from Benny:

TRAPP. B.:
Reptilien und Amphibien des griechischen Festlandes

For Turkey I recommend this book:
FRANZEN, M., BUSSMANN, M., KORDGES, K., THIESMEIER. B.:
Die Amphibien und Reptilien der Südwest-Türkei

It covers offcourse not the entire country but only a smaller part, but nonetheless it is very elaborate on the biology of the species, the photography is great and there are nice distribution maps. Also the species in this book are most of the time also species that occur in Greece and can therefore be used for Greece as well. 

Both books recommanded by Bobby => nothing to add.

The amphibians and reptiles of Greece, Efstratios D. Valakos et al (Ed. Chimaira):
Like Bobby wrote!
Additional notes: some of the pictures, like Lacerta viridis (J. Hill) are from Austria. Johannes wrote it, but the made a Greece distribution!
and Vipera ursinii on Corfu island?

Mario
 

I agree with Bobby & Mario on the book published by Chimaira. Also, 2 pictures of female Lacerta viridis are wrongly labeled Lacerta agilis within the Lacerta agilis chapter!

Anyway, I think this book is interesting to have an overwiew of the herpetofauna of Greece, but it's not a must-have.

And I also totally agree that the book about South-Western Turkey published by Laurenti Verlag is very good! This one is definitely worth buying if you understand German. 

Well, there are quite a few errors in that book, indeed.
- Jan's pictures of Vipera berus, looking of course nothing like those from Greece. Description of berus: same trouble.
- Two pictures of the same quatuorlineata specimen (I know, because I caught it), one of them labelled as from Skyros (correct), one as from Peloponnese (wrong).
- The distribution maps are a complete joke. If the point is/was to highlight the need for a Greek atlas, they succeeded. If not, ... The number of dots comes nowhere near to properly depicting ANY species distribution + (as mentioned) within those few dots, there are many, many (classic) mistakes.

Nevertheless, I'm happy to have it!
 

I do quite like some aspects of the Valakos et al book, but the amount of errors made by a book of many authors is quite disappointing as that book could have been the official reference to the amphibians and reptiles of Greece.
Something that came to my attention was that not one of the authors has contributed a photograph to the book? Maybe it is just me but I found this a little strange and disappointing, because I really liked the idea of Greek experts writing a book about the Greek herpetofauna instead of visiting foreigners (like myself). That being said, Benny Trapp's book is for me an excellent reference to the herpetofauna of the Greek mainland and one of my personal favorite books, I especially like the beautiful habitat shots that accompany each species.
As for Valakos et al, I still quite like it, but the distribution maps are without doubt its major shortcomings.
Matt 

I take it that the Turkey book isn't published in English? I'm going to Oludeniz in 3 weeks (girlfriends choice) and can't find much information other than soft shelled turtles near the airport, i'm guessing that there are going to be a few additional species not in Arnold so i'll photograph first and id later. 

Carl,

I've had the same issue when going to Turkey. I have no books on the area (although if I understood German well, I would buy "Die Amphibien und Reptilien der Südwest-Türkei" for sure. Instead, I got all my info from PDF's. There is a set of 3 good ones covering the entire Turkish reptile fauna; one with distribution maps. Even though it isn't the most up-to-date info (from 2000), it is a good source of info.

Sindaco, R., A. Venchi, G.M. Carpaneto & M.A. Bologna

The reptiles of Anatolia: a checklist and zoogeographical analysis. – part 1: species list.- part 2: maps.- part 3: Analysis and reference

Hope this helps 

Thank you all!
Then, I save my money with Chimaira book. I thought this editions usually was very good books :(
I've Sindaco et al, and I like this book, I used for Israel back, like Carl mentioned (first shot, later id).

Although they are not Greeks, herpers who are experts in Greece could to write a good guide from Greece. Some of them, are in EFHC ;) 

Cheers Dan i'll take a look at those papers and thanks to Bobby for the list of prospective species. 

Luis,
Dan is not talking about the Sindaco reptiles of WP book, but about a paper on Turkish reptiles, which you can freely download from the SEH website.
g's,
J. 

Thank you Jeroen,
I didn't read the complete list of authors.
Regards