Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Numb Were the Beadsman's Fingers by Alan Bradley Series: Flavia de Luce #12
Published by Bantam on November 3, 2026
Genres: Historical Mystery
Pages: 256
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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In the cloisters of Golgotha House, a mere binocular’s-squint away from Buckshaw, a nun lies dead. When her fellow sisters prepare her corpse for burial, they discover that their companion has been living a shocking lie for years. The truth about her past, and the dark reasons she harbored for escaping it, are impossible to fathom.
Charged with cracking this mystery is the firm of Arthur W. Dogger & Associates (Discreet investigations)—consisting, of course, of the inimitable young Flavia de Luce and her faithful partner-in-detection Dogger.
In a 1950’s English country village on a crumbling family estate lives a brilliant chemist and amateur-turned professional sleuth (this is her own opinion of the matter) and her quirky relations. Flavia de Luce cannot go long without stumbling over a body and does so in this twelfth installment to the series.
Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series has been a favorite since the opening pages of the first book. Flavia was eleven years old, precocious, and growing up in a ramshackle way with her widowed father and two older sisters. The de Luce family home, Buckshaw, was added onto over the centuries by various family members so it was as eccentric as its occupants.
Each de Luce has a quirk: the Colonel is in constant grief for his dead wife and locked away with his stamp collection while the precarious finances barely keep the family in room and board, Ophelia is brilliant with a gift for music and Daphne always has a book in hand and her diverse reading habits help her retain fascinating facts. Flavia has taken over her great Uncle Tar’s chemistry lab in the attics, but discovered an equal interest in solving murder cases. Flavia, doesn’t remember her mother, doesn’t fit with her two older sisters, and is left to her own devices much of the time including some harrowing moments when her determination to get to the bottom of local mysteries and murders got her into trouble.
Now, late in the series after her father has passed on and in a surprise twist, left Flavia the house. Flavia, her sisters and her orphaned cousin Undine rattle around the old place with a cook, Mrs. Mullet, and her father’s man, Dogger to care for the place and the girls though oldest, Ophelia and her German husband, Dieter have been off on their honeymoon. Dogger and Flavia have recently formed a private detective agency together.
The case they are working on is something of a cold case trying to figure out the history of a recently deceased nun. The startling points are that the nun has old bullet wound scars and… was a man! The Sisters were a big help to men returning from the war who had deep emotional and mental wounds including Dogger. He is stunned that one of the sisters was a man the whole time. Flavia and Dogger take the scant evidence and facts to dig into the past. Dogger remembers talk of the Yukon and the Klondike when he was under the sister’s care and so they delve into the past and find a stunning reveal to the mystery.
Numb Were the Beadman’s Fingers was a quick-read for me. I love the Flavia de Luce series and couldn’t wait to read her quirky and humorous remarks, escapades, and thoughts and catch up with what is going on in her life. She is struggling with becoming a young lady and how to handle more grown-up situations including a situation to do with her newly married sister and her husband. Undine was as annoying to Flavia as usual and cranky Daffy was worth bearding in her library for help with answers. And, she can’t help poking her nose into the little mystery surrounding the vicar and his wife. It was a comfy and engaging historical cozy mystery that hit the spot for me.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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