Stylish" academic writers write "with passion, with courage, with craft, and with style" (Sword 2011, p. 11). By these standards, Mark Petticrew and Helen Roberts can well be characterized as writers with style. Their much cited book Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide (2006) has the hallmarks of passion (for the methods they promulgate), courage (anticipating and effectively countering the concerns of naysayers who would dismiss their methods), and, most of all, craft (the craft of writing clear, accessible, and compelling text). Readers do not have to venture far into Petticrew and Roberts' Practical Guide before encountering engaging examples, a diverse array of topics, and notable characters (Lao-Tze, Confucius, and former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, prominently among them). Metaphors draw readers in at every turn and offer persuasive reasons to follow the authors' lead. Systematic reviews, we learn early on, "provide a redress to the natural tendency of readers and researchers to be swayed by [biases], and … fulfill an essential role as a sort of scientific gyroscope, with an in-built self-righting mechanism" (p. 6). Who among us, in our professional and personal lives, would not benefit from a gyroscope or some other "in-built self-righting mechanism"? This has a clear appeal.