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Fourth short-story collection, published 1917. Seven stories in this Gutenberg edition, spanning original publication dates from 1908 to 1917. More varied in setting and tone than the earlier collections — several stories move away from London and the Baker Street formula. The title story (LAST) is the only Holmes story set during World War I and the final story in internal chronological order.
Stories
| # | Code | Title | Notable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | WIST | The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge | Two-part structure; a sinister house in Surrey; a Central American dictator |
| II | BRUC | The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans | Stolen submarine plans; a body on the Underground; Mycroft Holmes in his fullest role |
| III | DEVI | The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot | Cornwall; a poisoned room; Holmes experiments on himself and Watson |
| IV | REDC | The Adventure of the Red Circle | An Italian secret society; a woman sheltering a witness; minimal Holmes action |
| V | LADY | The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax | A missing English lady; Watson investigates abroad; a near-burial alive |
| VI | DYIN | The Adventure of the Dying Detective | Holmes fakes a fatal illness for three days to trap a murderer |
| VII | LAST | His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes | 1914; Holmes as spy; narrated in third person; final canonical story chronologically |
Key takeaways
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BRUC is the fullest showcase for Mycroft Holmes. He visits Baker Street (a near-unprecedented event given his sedentary habits), and Holmes reveals that Mycroft is not merely a government official but effectively is the British government: “He is the British Government… occasionally he is the British Government.” The case — submarine plans stolen by a German agent — turns on a body placed on top of a Underground train, moved while the train was in a tunnel.
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DEVI takes Holmes and Watson to Cornwall for a holiday, making it one of the few stories set entirely outside London. Holmes falls victim to the same experimental poison he is investigating (root of Radix pedis diaboli) — and nearly dies alongside Watson. It is one of the most physically vulnerable we see Holmes, and one of the most genuinely frightening stories in the Canon.
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DYIN is a masterclass of sustained misdirection: Holmes has apparently contracted a rare tropical disease and is dying; he refuses to let Watson examine him. The reader (and Watson) believe he is genuinely ill. The reveal — that Holmes has been faking starvation-induced illness for three days to draw out the murderer Culverton Smith — is one of the Canon’s best twists.
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LAST is unique in the Canon: narrated in the third person, set on 2 August 1914 (the eve of Britain’s entry into WWI), and depicting Holmes as a government spy who has spent two years penetrating a German espionage ring under a false identity. Holmes and Watson are both visibly old. The story ends with Holmes’s famous meditation on the “east wind” coming, and the “cleaner, better, stronger land” that will emerge after the war. It functions as a farewell to the Victorian world the Canon inhabited.
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WIST is the only two-chapter story in the Canon (Part I and Part II as separate sections), anticipating the dual-narrative structure of The Valley of Fear.
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LADY is unusual in that Watson does much of the investigating abroad, and Holmes arrives late — one of the more effective Watson-forward stories outside Hound of the Baskervilles.
Chronological note
LAST is set in 1914, making it the latest story in the Canon’s internal timeline. However, Doyle continued writing Holmes stories through the 1920s (the Case-Book was published 1921–27), so LAST is chronologically final but not the last written.