Fatal Legacy, by Lindsey Davis

Roman informer Flavia Albia chases a debt for a family business and finds herself drawn in to the machinations and shenanigans of a very different family, who are battling over possession of an orchard outside the city. She finds herself digging through a murky history of violence and litigation that has continued since the death of a patriarch 40 years earlier. The case requires negotiating a web of lies, finding a missing will, preventing an elopement and determining whether one of the recalcitrant family members is a freedman or a slave. There are so many characters, most of whom are related, it is difficult to keep track of who is who and how they are connected. The novel is enhanced by the welcome reappearance of Albia’s parents, Falco and Helena. But an unnecessary murder near the end adds to the chaos of too much going on for too little effect.