That abrupt segue in STUD threw me too the first time I read it - I thought the publisher screwed up and stuck a totally different story by someone else in the middle during printing. :p
I think the complete collections err by putting the novellas at the beginning so that they're often the first exposure new readers have to Holmes. I think they work better after the short stories; I know I was less than impressed when I read them the first time. But on re-reading the novellas after having read the short stories, I appreciated them, if not loved them, a lot more. (Hounds is one of my all time favourites.)
Same here I first had STUD as audio and though I had drifted off to sleep and woken up in a completely different story.
I'm not a fan of either STUD or VALL and yet they were the first stories in the complete edition I have - it's enough to put anyone off. Coming to Holmes in this day and age needs to start with the short stories, even though STUD details the first meeting between Holmes and Watson, because I can't see how any new Holmes reader would want to actually finish STUD.
At the very least, it should come with a commentary....
I think the complete collections err by putting the novellas at the beginning so that they're often the first exposure new readers have to Holmes. I think they work better after the short stories; I know I was less than impressed when I read them the first time. But on re-reading the novellas after having read the short stories, I appreciated them, if not loved them, a lot more. (Hounds is one of my all time favourites.)
I'm not a fan of either STUD or VALL and yet they were the first stories in the complete edition I have - it's enough to put anyone off. Coming to Holmes in this day and age needs to start with the short stories, even though STUD details the first meeting between Holmes and Watson, because I can't see how any new Holmes reader would want to actually finish STUD.
At the very least, it should come with a commentary....