Murder at Golgotha Revisiting the Most Famous Crime Scene in History Book

A sincere enough, I guess, effort to look at the Passion story as if it were a contemporary crime of murder. What facts of the event do we know, what can we assume about things we are not sure of, and how do we interpret the evidence, and correct any misconceptions. The author uses the premises of a forensic investigation of a crime to look at what the victim (ol' J.C.) did just before the shit hit the fan, where he ate (was it a seder or not?), where he went after dinner, how he got sandbagged by Judas, how the "trial" went, the differing interests of the Jewish high priests and the Roman authorities, what we know from other sources about crucifixions (not all that much, but it is clear that nailing through the palms would not support the weight of a body. Also, the uprights were permanent, often the trunks of actual trees, and so J.C. would have carried just the crosspiece). Interesting enough diagrams of the tomb, how the stone would have been rolled to and fro, and what might have been seen in the tomb.
The author seems to give more credence than seems wise to the historical reality of the relics St. Helena found on her investigation of the Golgotha sites 300+ years after the fact. He seems to suggest that the nails she claimed she found, along with the sign that supposedly was over J.C.'s head were the actual things, rather than what local sharpies understood she wanted to find, and gave it to her, which makes much more sense. (Helena was likely in her 80s at the time). Also, the author seems to take the Shroud of Turin for what it is purported to be, and devotes a lot of time trying to connect the ambiguous stains on the cloth with the supposed wounds reportedly on J.C.'s body.
I will remember the context of the book, which was fairly interesting, and the fact that he looks closely at the Gospels – all written well after the fact - to squeeze out what realistic comments there might be. He gives more credence to John, though it is the last Gospel and furthest from the events. The author sees the tone and structure of the Johannine narrative to be more likely than the others to have been written by someone who was close to or present at many of the events described. The author also considers the post-resurrection appearances, and makes no judgment on the way that those appearances show a much more cleaned up and put together figure than that which was nailed up on the cross, and supposedly wrapped in the shroud.