His last bow

His Last Bow, published in 1917, ends on the eve of war in August 1914, as a retired Sherlock Holmes springs his trap on a German spy after two years undercover. That title story is the only one not narrated by Watson. Earlier cases include stolen submarine plans, a Cornish family struck down overnight and Holmes apparently dying. Exiled tyrants and Italian secret societies widen the world beyond Baker Street, and Wisteria Lodge's portrait of a mixed-race cook carries the racism of its day.

Start with The Dying Detective, the shortest at about 9,200 syllables, or The Red Circle, split into parts of about 6,000 and 4,700. Wisteria Lodge is longest, near 18,000. Mycroft calls himself anh and his brother chú, and Sherlock answers as em. Holmes calls Emilia Lucca phu nhân, Inspector Gregson gives her a cold cô, and she is em to her husband. Holmes keeps a mocking ông with the trapped Von Bork, who returns anh and các người.