tortuous

highly involved or intricate

• “the Byzantine tax structure”
• “convoluted legal language”
• “convoluted reasoning”
• “intricate needlework”
• “an intricate labyrinth of refined phraseology”
• “the plot was too involved”
• “a knotty problem”

marked by repeated turns and bends

• “a tortuous road up the mountain”
• “winding roads are full of surprises”
• “had to steer the car down a twisty track”

not straightforward

• “his tortuous reasoning”