His Last Bow
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4.2 • 81 Ratings
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Publisher Description
On the eve of the First World War, Von Bork, a German agent, is getting ready to leave England with his vast collection of intelligence, gathered over a four-year period. His wife and household have already left Harwich for Flushing in the Netherlands, leaving only him and his elderly housekeeper. Von Bork's diplomat friend, Baron von Herling, is impressed by his collection of vital British military secrets, and tells Von Bork that he will be received in Berlin as a hero. Von Bork indicates that he is waiting for one last transaction with his Irish-American informant, Altamont, who will arrive shortly with a rich treasure: naval signals.
Customer Reviews
August 1914
There is a strange correspondence between this, the chronological finale of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures and reading Barbara W Tuchman’s marvellous history, ‘The Guns of August’. The observations by the German characters at the story’s opening are reflected in Tuchman’s minutely detailed and careful analysis of the British position in August 1914, a position that Conan Doyle clearly appreciated in August 1917 when was writing this story. Critics have argued that Holmes should not have revealed his identity and destroyed his ‘cover story’ and usefulness as a spy, but this ignores the title; this is clearly Holmes’ last effort and he was either unable or unwilling to carry on after two difficult years of tense undercover work. It’s a moving final encounter with Watson too, still Holmes’ trusted companion but not, in this one case, his biographer nor the story’s narrator. For us, as Holmes’s fans, this is not quite the end though, as in 1915 on the Sussex Downs he will meet the extraordinary young women (disguised as a young man), Mary Russell. But that is another series and another story…