His last bow Some later reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes

About the book

This collection brings together cases that Watson presents as further records of Sherlock Holmes's career, ending with a story connected to the approach of war. A disturbing visit, missing plans, unexplained deaths, and an apparent illness give the detective different kinds of evidence to test. The stories vary their settings and forms of urgency while preserving the importance of details that witnesses have misunderstood or ignored. The title piece widens the familiar partnership's responsibilities beyond individual clients, placing its talents in an altered historical atmosphere. Across the volume, performance and mistaken identification repeatedly complicate what people think they know. Readers find both the established pleasures of Holmes's analytical confidence and a sense that the world around Baker Street is moving into another phase.

• Detection
• Disguise
• Private and public duty

Why read it

For varied later cases and the change of scale that the title story brings to the partnership.

Short-story collection · English text