Rose Conspiracy

Craig Parshall

Description

Publishers Weekly called Craig Parshall's Trial by Ordeal "an enjoyable romp for legal thriller aficionados." Now Parshall takes his readers to the nation's capital, where a hitherto unknown document has turned up...and turned into murder.As the Smithsonian's president examines a newly discovered account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, an intruder steals in, kills him, and disappears into the night with the document.Vinnie Archmont, an accomplished and stunningly beautiful artist, is implicated. She hires the brilliant but secretly guilt-burdened criminal law professor J.D. Blackstone.Blackstone finds himself uncovering the Mystic Freemasons' most guarded secret. He reluctantly turns to his uncle, a Bible-quoting Anglican priest and occult-religions expert. Enemies like a sorcery-obsessed billionaire English lord, a powerful U.S. Senator, and a ruthless prosecutor force Blackstone to employ all his cunning.In the process, he is compelled to choose between spiritual counterfeit and Gospel truth, guilt and forgiveness...destruction and a new beginning.

Sujets

• Romance
• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736964166
• Langue: English

Extrait

ENDORSEMENTS
Kudos for The Rose Conspiracy, Craig Parshall s latest legal-suspense novel
A captivating novel with mystery, suspense, faith and values. Craig Parshall has written a book that won t let the reader put it down. A story that mixes the one of history s great mysteries with gripping legal suspense, it will intrigue every reader. Bravo!
-Ted Baehr
Chairman of the Christian Film Television Commission and publisher of Movieguide
A powerful novel, with the intriguing detail that is typical of Craig Parshall s fiction This legal thriller doesn t miss a beat, putting you into the dead center of a murder case only to find out you re confronted with a spiritual mystery.
-Phil Cooke
founder and creative director, Cooke Pictures, Burbank, California
And for the novels in the Chambers of Justice series
The Resurrection File
Powerful one of the most fascinating books I have read in years.
-Tim LaHaye,
coauthor of the bestselling LEFT BEHIND series
A compelling, realistic story Incorporates spiritual awakening without ever being preachy.
-Faithful Reader.com
Custody of the State
This is not only a great mystery, but also a deeply moving, redemptive book Deserves translation to the big screen. Bravo!
-Ted Baehr,
chairman of the Christian Film Television Commission and publisher of Movieguide
Authentic characters and a believable story line make Custody of the State gripping and even unnerving reading.
- Christian Library Journal
The Accused
Grisham and Clancy move over! Craig Parshall has truly arrived The Accused [is] a super thriller-a masterful tale of suspense as well as romance it could be a superb motion picture!
-Ken Wales,
executive producer of the CBS television series Christy and veteran Hollywood filmmaker
I was riveted from the first page. Not only an excellent novel, it is also a highly accurate account of military justice and the covert world of special operations.
-Lt. Col. Robert Buzz Patterson, USAF Retd.,
former military aide to President Clinton and author of the bestselling book Dereliction of Duty
Missing Witness
A legal thriller wrapped inside a very poignant love story with a twist Fresh, compelling storytelling with enough grit to appeal to a mass secular audience.
-Chris Carpenter, producer, CBN.com
The author has a true gift for storytelling.
-Teens4Jesus Library
The Last Judgment
A fitting finale for [Parshall s] Chambers of Justice series. The Last Judgment incorporates all of the elements that made us wish the series would continue indefinitely.
-Faithful Reader.com
Craig Parshall is a master at weaving morality into the narrow, litigious [confines] of the courtroom.
-CBN.com
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon
Cover photo Shutterstock
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
THE ROSE CONSPIRACY
Copyright 2009 by Craig Parshall
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parshall, Craig, 1950-
The rose conspiracy / Craig Parshall.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7369-1514-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-6416-6 (eBook)
1. Murder-Fiction. 2. Artists-Fiction. 3. Freemasonry-Fiction. 4. Washington (DC)-Fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.A77R67 2009
813 .6-dc22
2008032122
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
The world is in pain, our secrets to gain.
-A SONG OF THE C RAFT
This is a work of fiction. As such, all of the characters and situations are fictional, including the character of Horace Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as all references to that institution, with the exception only of the physical appearance of its famous Castle administration building and the general configuration of those political categories that populate its Board of Regents.
However, the references in this novel to the religious philosophy and mysteries of the esoteric followers of the Craft are taken from research and writings on speculative Freemasonry, much of it authored by Freemasons themselves. It is unknown to or ignored by rank-and-file members, who consider the Freemasons to constitute merely a fraternal or social organization. The secret revealed here was gleaned from the symbols, ceremonies, and history of Masonry itself, and from the writings of those who have studied it.
Contents
Endorsements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
About the Author
CHAPTER 1

T he driver behind the steering wheel was sweating like a hunter in the dripping heat of the jungle.
But this was a very different kind of jungle.
It was five minutes before midnight, and the car was cruising along the marble-and-monument-studded streets of the Capitol Hill district of Washington DC. The driver was tugging at a collar edge. Drops of perspiration trickled down back and torso, even with the air conditioning on. Maybe it was the freakish heat wave that had hit the city, causing brownouts and power failures across the city. Maybe it was something else the nasty assignment that had to be taken care of. When the trigger was pulled, and it was all over, the long-missing pages of John Wilkes Booth s personal diary would then be in the grip of someone else s hand.
Yet the driver knew what was actually at stake that night. And it really wasn t about the Booth diary. Or even the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at the hand of a Confederate radical. The note that was about to be seized contained a message with ramifications far beyond any of that.
Sweltering temperatures had suffocated Washington with a relentless haze of humidity that week. Even though it was only June, temperatures were in the low hundreds during the day and in the nineties at night.
The only thing cool to the touch was the white marble of the statues and monuments. The driver steered past the Lincoln Monument and then slowed the car slightly. As usual, interior lights illuminated the massive likeness of Abraham Lincoln in his great marble chair. Once past the monument, the car picked up speed, entered Constitution Avenue, and started heading toward the National Mall. The destination was the Castle, the nineteenth-century red-brick building full of turrets and spires where the administrative headquarters of the Smithsonian Institution were housed.
The driver parked the car a block away and walked quickly to the side entrance of the Castle-then, reaching the door, quickly tapped a code into the security panel. The lock clicked open.
Upstairs, the lights were still on in the office of Horace Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was working late.
But the object of his work that night was not business as usual.
Only moments before, Langley had opened his safe and pulled out a metal case containing a folder enclosed within a plastic zip bag. Now he was studying the contents-eighteen pages from the diary of John Wilkes Booth. They had been missing for nearly one hundred and fifty years. Their disappearance had occurred suspiciously, about the same time as the federal investigation into the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was taking place. Booth s diary had been taken when the assassin was captured and killed. But at the time at least one witness swore that eighteen pages had been removed from it.
That was the point at which those pages seemed to have vanished forever.
Then, a century and a half later, the granddaughter and sole heir of a farmer in central Virginia went rummaging through her grandfather s attic after his death and happened upon some boxes of old letters and papers. But one sheaf of papers looked different. While much of the writing on them was faded and undecipherable to the layman s eye, a reference to Abraham Lincoln was visible. In his will, the farmer had given everything to his granddaughter-except the papers. Those, he said, must go to the Smithsonian Institution.
After some wrangling with lawyers, the eighteen pages were transferred to the Smithsonian. Horace Langley had succeeded in keeping the discovery from being leaked to the press, even t