His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes #8)

[Kadijah Michelle]

This thread is to discuss the Arthur Conan Doyle book, His Last Bow, the 8th book in the Sherlock Holmes Series.

Pages: 256 pages

Length: 1 month

Participants: Ashley, Ilona, RJ, Scott, Suki

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading this one yesterday, and I finished the first story The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Of course, someone's past comes back to haunt them, but although the familiar theme is really tiresome at this point (there is a thesis paper waiting to be written on what Doyle's theme has to say about Victorian-era England and Doyle himself) I have to say that this story pulled it off well. It's slightly longer than most Holmes short stories which gives the story a chance to better develop and also gives Holmes a little more to do.

The brief preface at the beginning of the book indicates that Holmes has now retired and that Watson is telling some tales which appear to have occurred near the end of Holmes' career. The subtitle of the book is "Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes" which in some volumes is "Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes." The book was published in 1917 during WWI and Holmes' "war service" is referenced in the preface. Most of the stories (other than the title story) were actually published prior to the start of WWI.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished two more stories:

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box - I enjoyed this story because the plot involved a lot of detecting by Holmes and Watson

The Adventure of the Red Circle: by Arthur Conan Doyle - I liked this one also, although it had echoes of The Valley of Fear

I'll probably finish next week...

[Ashley]

I will be starting this next week. I just to finish another book first.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans - I liked this one although I noticed some similarities with The Adventure of the Second Stain. Even (view spoiler)[the spy named Oberstein is back! (hide spoiler)] Still probably my favorite in this collection though.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Dying Detective and liked it a lot. It's a more unique plot than the usual "client arrives and asks Holmes for help."

So far I've enjoyed all of the stories in this volume more than usual Holmes stories. I'd say this is the best short story collection in the series.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax. Lots of fun! (view spoiler)[Watson gets to do some detecting on his own, and Holmes is wrong (well, temporarily wrong). (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

I'm a little behind on my reading as things have come up. I finished The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. There are a lot of the same points used in these stories. The multiple sections in this story break it up a little bit. (view spoiler)[ I like the take that Holmes and the inspector are competing again each other using their own methods to figure out what happened. This is a different take as they usually let Holmes go at it and in a way do what he says or Holmes proves them wrong. (hide spoiler)]

[Scott]

I’ve finished the first two stories so far

[Scott]

Interesting the second story has a character from the Pinkerton agency which was the same agency in the valley of fear. This agency is still around today was in the news over their depiction in red dead redemption 2

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Devil's Foot which was a fun adventure with some nice twists.

I also finished His Last Bow - Holmes comes out of retirement as a spy in WWI. Although there are some additional Holmes stories published during the 1920s (which we will read next month in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes), this story seems as though Doyle meant it to put an exclamation point on the end of Holmes' career.

This collection of short stories was very good throughout. I didn't notice any duds. It was probably my favorite of the series so far.

I'm going to take another brief Holmes break then I will pick up The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes around the 8th of February or so.

[Ashley]

I finished The Adventure of the Cardboard Box. I agree with thought this story did have an investigation into it. It was interesting to read and got back to how Holmes solves a case and clues to follow.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Scott wrote: "Interesting the second story has a character from the Pinkerton agency which was the same agency in the valley of fear. This agency is still around today was in the news over their depiction in red..."

Very true. I think the Pinkertons may have been referenced in some earlier stories also. Study in Scarlet maybe?

[Ashley]

I think the Pinkertons have been in a few stories. Investigators have appeared in multiple throughout the stories.

[Ashley]

I finished The Adventure of the Red Circle. I enjoyed this story. I like the stories where Holmes and Watson actually follow the clues to get a result. This one also have an interesting backstory.

[Scott]

Finished the book. The last one 'His Last Bow' seemed really short since the book was named after it. I also found it very anti-climatic as a title story. I liked some stories more than others.

[Ashley]

I finished all of these stories and just going to do one comment. I agree that The Last Bow was not the most interesting story in this book. I did enjoy The Adventure of Bruce-Partington Plans and The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax. These had different elements in them and they were interesting reads. This was my favorite book of short stories so far.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Ashley wrote: "...This was my favorite book of short stories so far."

Mine too!