It was first published in September 1917 in The Strand Magazine and collected as the last of an anthology of eight stories titled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes the following month.

On the eve of the First World War, the German agent Von Bork is getting ready to leave England with his vast collection of intelligence, gathered over a four-year period.

Von Bork says that he is waiting for one last transaction with his Irish-American informant, Altamont, who will arrive shortly with a rich treasure: naval signals.

Altamont, mentioning cases in which several German informants have ended up in prison, is distrustful of Von Bork and refuses to deliver the naval codes until he receives payment.

Now past their heyday, they have nonetheless caught several spies (Holmes is actually responsible for the imprisoned agents of whom "Altamont" spoke), and fed the Germans some thoroughly untrustworthy intelligence.

Holmes had retired from detective work, spending his days beekeeping in the countryside, but returned after the Foreign Minister and the Premier came to him.

Holmes has been on this case for two years, and it has taken him to Chicago, Buffalo, and Ireland, where he learnt to play the part of a bitter Irish-American, even gaining the credentials of a member of a secret society.

The end of Nicholas Meyer's 1993 novel The Canary Trainer ties into "His Last Bow", with Edward Grey and H. H. Asquith approaching Holmes to request he come out of retirement to investigate a man named Von Bork.

Ten Years Beyond Baker Street by Cay Van Ash is set during Holmes's undercover search for Von Bork; it tells how he divides his time between his counter-espionage task and a search for Sir Denis Nayland Smith, believed to have been kidnapped by Fu Manchu; thus, Van Ash combines the worlds created by Conan Doyle and Sax Rohmer.

Peter Brown wrote "Anyone having any knowledge or experience of actual intelligence work could not help a gasp of horror at what Sherlock Holmes is doing in 'His Last Bow'.

Having by patient hard work established his credentials with the Germans and being in a perfect position to go on feeding them false information for the rest of the war, Holmes for no reason whatsoever blows his own cover and destroys everything.

[6] The 1942 American film Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror starring Basil Rathbone is credited as an adaptation of this story.

[8] "His Last Bow" was dramatised by Edith Meiser as an episode of the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.