She Treads Softly: Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers

Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers by Alan Bradley
11/3/26; 256 pages
Ballantine
Flavia de Luce Novel #12

Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers by Alan Bradley is a very highly recommended cozy mystery featuring Flavia de Luce, a favorite precocious young detective and chemistry prodigy. This is the 12th and final addition to the Flavia de Luce mystery series. Author Alan Bradley, died at the age of 87 on May 20, 2026.

While preparing the body of deceased Sister Garance for her burial, the Sisters of Clemency in the cloisters of Golgotha House are shocked to discover she was actually a man. The Reverend Mother asks Flavia and Dogger, of Arthur W. Dogger & Associates (Discreet investigations), for their assistance in identifying who Sister Garance was in order to notify the family. It seems being a man in an order of nuns who have a vow of silence is a perfect hideout. Flavia and Dogger undertake the challenge to discover the secret behind the decades-old deception.

Flavia is well-established, intelligent, resourceful, and innovative character in the series set in 1950s England and it is a pleasure to be back in her world as she conducts a charming, more traditional final investigation. There is the expected humor and wit along the way while Flavia researches the past to uncover the identity of Sister Garance. There is a side story that Cynthia Davidson, the vicar's wife is concerned Denwyn, the vicar, is drinking. Mrs. Mullet, Feely, Deiter, Daffy and Undine all make an appearance. There is a heart-felt farewell from Alan Bradley at the end of the novel.

For all of us who have been following Flavia Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers is an excellent, suitable final mystery for her to solve. If you have never accompanied Flavia on an investigation, this is a series worth reading right from the start with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Thanks to Ballantine for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.