His Last Bow

His Last Bow is a 1917 collection, published in the middle of the First World War. It gathers eight stories Doyle had written in the decade or so after The Return, plus the title story, an espionage piece set on the eve of the war with Holmes in retirement and pretending to be an Irish-American spy named Altamont to entrap a German agent. That story was political fiction in real time, written to support the war effort, and it is a strange way for a detective series to behave.

The rest of the collection ranges widely in quality. The Bruce-Partington Plans is a strong espionage mystery involving stolen submarine specs and Mycroft Holmes back at his Whitehall desk. The Dying Detective is a deliberate fake-out with Holmes pretending to be dying of tropical disease to trap a poisoner. Wisteria Lodge is messy. The Devil’s Foot has a properly creepy hallucinogenic plant. The collection signals Doyle’s drift away from the character, but the high points still earn their place in the canon.