His Last Bow

Eight later cases: a mysterious invitation that ends in murder at Wisteria Lodge, a parcel containing two severed ears in The Cardboard Box, a lodger who never leaves her room in The Red Circle, stolen submarine plans in The Bruce-Partington Plans, Holmes apparently near death in The Dying Detective, a vanished lady, and the poison of The Devil's Foot. In the title story, set on the eve of the First World War, an ageing Holmes comes out of retirement to trap a German spy.

The collection appeared in 1917, in the middle of the war, and its last story is the final adventure in the Holmes chronology. David Clarke reads it alone, in about seven hours.