Can a really great book really be published by Springer-Verlag?

Yes! ... if you can find it anymore. How To Solve It, by Zbignie Michalewicz. A recent re-publication (co-authored by David B. Fogel) is more readily available, ISBN 978-3540224945.

This is a particularly-readable example of a concentrated book of heuristics. (Not just “algorithms,” and there is a difference.) It shows you how to approach many practical problems whose solutions are not immediately obvious.