His Last Bow

An Apple Books Classic edition.

This late entry in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes canon reflects a turning point for both its hero and the world he inhabits.

Dr. Watson looks back on a series of demanding cases, from calculated acts of revenge to the return of Holmes’ perhaps even more brilliant and mercurial brother Mycroft. In the title story (one of the few not narrated by Watson), Holmes returns from retirement to serve his country on the eve of the First World War.

His Last Bow is quietly suspenseful and steeped in atmosphere. These stories capture Holmes in his final phase of rich character development: still formidable, still precise, but newly aware of forces beyond even his control.