Saturnalia

Saturnalia (2007) by Lindsey Davis

A Marcus Didius Falco novel.

Set in Rome, AD 76, during the holiday of Saturnalia.

Falco is an informer (sort of equivalent to a modern private investigator).

Falco simultaneously tries to capture Veleda (an escaped German enemy of Rome), find his wife's missing brother, and solve a case involving the serial killing of homeless people.

I found the characters from the competing schools of medicine very interesting. The schools were:

Egyptian empiricism
Greek pneumatism
Etruscan dogmatism
Chaldean dream therapy

I have enjoyed several of the author's Falco novels, and this one is no exception.