Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy (UK 2023)

From the Publisher:
In unpaid bar bill leads to flavia Albia most bitter and complex case yet
A contested will has led to a feud between two families. Endless claims and counterclaims have led to violence and even death. The case has limped on for decades.

Now, at last, an unlikely reconciliation is possible. Two youngsters from each side of the divide, Gaius and Cosca, have fallen in love. But the stigma of past slavery hangs over Cosca, threatening the marriage.

Albia must cut through decades of secrets, arguments, lies and violence to reach a startling truth.

Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy. A Flavia Albia Novel. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 9781529354775 (October, 2023), 394 p., £9.99.

Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy (USA 2023)

From the Publisher:
In first century Rome, Flavia Albia takes on an easy case that soon proves to be anything but as, at every turn, bodies -- old and new -- dog her path.

Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over her father's business as a private informer. She only has two hard and fast rules - avoid political cases and family cases because nothing good comes of either of them. Unfortunately, since Albia isn't good at avoiding either, it's really more of a guideline. So when her Aunt Junia demands Albia track down a couple of deadbeats who owe her money, it's an offer Albia can't refuse.

It turns out to be a relatively easy job, requiring only some half-hearted blackmail, and it leads to some new work - tracking down some essential paperwork for the debtor family. But nothing is truly easy in Rome - if Albia doesn't find the paperwork that proves that family's ancestor was a properly freed slave, the family could lose everything. The more she digs, the more skeletons she finds in their closet, until murder in the past leads to murder in the present. Now, it's serious, even deadly, and Albia has precious little time to uncover the truth.

Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy. A Flavia Albia Novel. Minotaur Books, ISBN: 9781250799906 (July, 2023), 368 p., $28.00, eBook $14.99.

Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy (UK 2023)

From the Publisher:
An unpaid bar bill leads Flavia Albia to her most bitter and complex case yet.
Decades earlier Appius Tranquillus Surus wrote his will: it freed his slaves and bequeathed his businesses to them. He left an orchard to the Prisci, a family he was friendly with, on the condition that his freedmen could still take its harvest.

The convoluted arrangement has led to a feud between the two families, each of which has its own internal strife. Endless claims and counterclaims lead to violence and even death. Lawyers have given up in exasperation as the case limps on. The original will has disappeared, along with a falsified codicil - and might there be another one?

But is there a solution? Two youngsters from each side of the divide, Gaius Venuleius and Cosca Sabatina, have fallen in love, which could unite the feuding families. There is only one problem: were Sabatina's grandmother and father really liberated in the Surus will? If not, the stigma of slavery will stop the marriage and the dispute will rage on forever.

Reconciliation seems impossible, but Albia will try. Her investigation must cut through decades of secrets, arguments, lies and violence to reach a startling truth.

Lindsey Davis: Fatal Legacy. A Flavia Albia Novel. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 9781529354737 (April, 2023), 380 p., £20.00, eBook £12.99.