The appeal of this book was the possibility that one of the central founding figures of Western (and indeed world) civilisation was a literary invention. It's a big claim and the author makes a very strong case that has pushed me from the "The supernatural stuff in Bible was obviously mythical but there probably was a historical figure that the Jesus stories were based on"-Camp over to the "The likelihood that Jesus existed is pretty small"-Camp. And it's not headline-grabbing trashy pseudo-history. A peer-revieweed academic work, it's closely and very rationally argued by a respected mainstream historian. His use of Bayes Theorem to arrive at a probability that Jesus was not a historical figure is refreshing and, well, rational. It's not always an easy read because of its exhaustive thoroughness but I found the narrator's (the author himself) style and delivery made it accessible.