Sherlock Holmes, the eagle-eyed detective and reasoner, is back for a fourth time in His Last Bow. This collection features Holmes in eight more dumbfounding cases where he is forced to stretch his ingenuity to the limits to arrive at a solution. Holmes is said to still be in good health barring a touch of rheumatism, according to Watson's preface; but he has retired from being a detective and now lives on a farm and has taken up beekeeping as a hobby. His older brother Mycroft makes a reappearance in the mystifying case of the "Bruce-Partington Plans", and Watson is alarmed when Holmes falls fatally ill in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective." It concludes with "His Last Bow", a finale set during the First World War, featuring Holmes and Watson trying to outwit a German spy.