Book Review: The Rose Conspiracy

The following is a review done on behalf of Mind & Media. The copy of the book I reviewed was donated by the publisher, through Mind & Media for the purpose of this review.

For those who bother to pay attention, reality comes with some very fascinating aspects, stories, plots, characters and situations. It has the added benefit of being real. But sometimes people like to throw something extra in. Generally those stories fall in the genres of sci-fi and fantasy. Unfortunately some authors fail to grasp that unless one is writing in those genres one must stick very closely to the real and the believable. The fantastic comes across as forced, amateurish over-kill.

But before I continue in that vein, let me note that I did thoroughly enjoy Craig Parshall’s new novel The Rose Conspiracy and in spite of the exaggerated character development, the plot was intriguing, to a point.

The main character, a retired law professor, now practicing law, by the name of [wait for it] J.D. Blackstone. [you may groan now] takes the case of an artist, a young woman, accused of murdering the head of the Smithsonian Institute and stealing the newly found and long lost letters of John Wilkes Booth.

The idea of the book is interesting albeit a bit tabloid.

The plot was, as I said, intriguing, but the climax a bit of a let down after so  much exaggerated drama from the rest of the book.

I’ve never been impressed with using fiction to attack a group. I didn’t like it when Salmon Rushdie did it, and even though I’m no great fan of freemasonry, there are better avenues to launch criticism of them than fiction. Attacking the practices of a group, in that way seems to me a bit unmanly. Liberals do it all the time. Conservatives should really be above those kinds of base and lowly tactics.

While there was quite a bit of interesting “historical” data, I’ve learned that authors often will invent history to make a story more appealing, so it’s best never to assume any of it’s true unless you can confirm it somewhere else.

Parshall does miss one of the most important qualities necessary for good fiction—make it believable.

Posted by Danny Carlton at April 14, 2009 4:15 PM