THE ROSE CONSPIRACY BY CRAIG PARSHALL

THE ROSE CONSPIRACY by CRAIG PARSHALL is his latest legal suspense novel.  
J.D. Blackstone is a lawyer in Washington D.C. and professor of law at the university.  His partner in his law firm is Julia, a former student of his.  After his wife and daughter are killed in a car crash he has a stormy relationship with her which is over by the time the story begins.  J.D. has also studied psychology, but didn't finish his PhD in psychology.
After his family's accident he suffers from terrible insomnia.  He is rather pompous and patronizing towards those who work with him, and this upsets Julia, who is also a very clever lawyer.
The story starts with the theft of the missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary from Horace Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and with his murder.
J.D. is to defend Vinnie Archmont who has been charged with murder, and if found guilty will get the death penalty.  Vinnie is a very colourful character and comes on very strong to J.D. who she seems to find very attractive.  He is wary of her as he feels she is hiding something.
Vinnie is an artist, a sculptor, who has been making a bust of Horace Langley.  Her art studio is sponsored by a very strange Englishman, Lord Magister Dee, who is deep into Freemasonry and other spiritual cults.  He is also paying Vinnie's legal fees.
J.D. goes to England to meet this man and stays in one of his castles.  
J.D. has an uncle who is a retired Anglican minister who has just written a book on the Freemasons which is a great help to J.D., although he finds his uncle's Christianity a waste of time.  He is quite condescending towards his uncle, who is also a lecturer at the University.  His uncle lectures in comparative religions and speaks to J.D. about the Freemasons and gnosticism, which irritates J.D. to start with.
There are two ways of looking a certain piece of evidence in the case - from the religious point of view or from the historical point of view.  The religious side comes from the secrets of Freemasonry and the historical side is tied in with the murder of Abraham Lincoln and stolen gold.
There is quite a turn around in the end - with the case and with J.D.'s beliefs.  I found the book very interesting.