London reviewers have been kind to this book, and in some cases even enthusiastic, but it is a little difficult to understand precisely why. Pilate is a shadowy character historically, and the role he is given in the Gospels was probably a distorted one, intended to engage Roman sympathies at the expense of the Jews. Certainly he seems too weak a peg on which to hang a work of this kind or length, though undoubtedly much research (not always relevant) has gone into it. The high point of the narrative, of course, is Pilate's confrontation with Jesus, which is played in a kind of cinematic slowdown. In spite of its occasional moments of genuine drama and insight, the book as a whole seems tendentious and overlong for its content.