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The Dog Who Came in from the Cold: A Corduroy Mansions Novel (Corduroy Mansions #2)
by
Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author)
CORDUROY MANSIONS - Book 2
In the Corduroy Mansions series of novels, set in London’s hip Pimlico neighborhood, we meet a cast of charming eccentrics, including perhaps the world’s most clever terrier, who make their home in a handsome, though slightly dilapidated, apartment block.
The heartwarming and hilarious new installment in the Corduroy Mansions series presents the fu...more
In the Corduroy Mansions series of novels, set in London’s hip Pimlico neighborhood, we meet a cast of charming eccentrics, including perhaps the world’s most clever terrier, who make their home in a handsome, though slightly dilapidated, apartment block.
The heartwarming and hilarious new installment in the Corduroy Mansions series presents the fu...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
June 21st 2011
by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
(first published January 1st 2009)
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A second merry romp with the Corduroy Mansions characters. McCall Smith's books are such gentle reads that I kind of feel like I'm floating in a warm tub of quirky humanity. I especially like the occasional splashy observation about life that he throws in. This time William French, failed Master of Wines, is duped into giving up something precious of his to aid the government's battle against spies. It's all vaguely preposterous but, that is the point. We really don't know what our governments a...more
I love these Corduroy Mansions stories, and the 44 Scotland St ones. Which is highly unusual, seeing as I ordinarily can't bear stories like this. I am usually more interested in the happenings, than the people in books.Usually one has interminable swathes of boring conversation, about totally uninteresting persons.
Not so, here. There is plenty of humour, and tongue-in-cheek, to keep it interesting. I think that because these were originally a serial of short pieces you get a lovely staccato q...more
This is the first book of his I had read and I was not familiar with the characters. This is one of those books with multiple story lines connected by a theme, the theme in this case being the fact that all the characters live in Corduroy mansions or are related to characters living there in some way.
We have William an ageing wine connoisseur/loving dog owner who is caught in the middle of possibly the most adventurous thing that has happened to him and is unsure about his next move. Then there...more
We have William an ageing wine connoisseur/loving dog owner who is caught in the middle of possibly the most adventurous thing that has happened to him and is unsure about his next move. Then there...more
This is another of McCall Smith's episodic series, like the Edinburgh one I can't remember (not the Isabel Dalhousie series). I'm so mystified how I can adore one of the author's series (Mma Ramotswe), but others I give up on. I gave up on the the Edinburgh one mostly because I couldn't tolerate the child abuse of Bertie (yes, I'm sure it was amusing in the way that the Dursleys' abuse of Harry Potter was amusing, but Bertie can't escape), and I gave up on this one without even finishing this bo...more
I wasn’t very happy with the first book in this series, Corduroy Mansions. I found it a bit depressing. While I enjoyed weaving in and out of the various inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions; learning more them and their lives; their intertwinements with each other; I think it was a bit too real. It was so true to how people are; how people can be that it was ultimately sad and depressing.
However, I found myself more tolerant; maybe more upbeat myself that this second book in this series was much m...more
However, I found myself more tolerant; maybe more upbeat myself that this second book in this series was much m...more
The Dog Who Came in From the Cold is not so much a novel than a collection of intersecting stories, each involving the inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions, a London apartment house. The titular dog is Freddie de La Hay, a Pimlico terrier both in breed and residency. After a visit to his master from an old acquaintance, Freddie finds himself reluctantly “spying” for MI6 by way of a bugged dog collar.
Other residents include Caroline, who is contemplating her relationship with quiet, sensitive James....more
Other residents include Caroline, who is contemplating her relationship with quiet, sensitive James....more
Several years ago, I came upon FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE, the second book in Alexander McCall Smiths's Isabel Dalhousie series. I was intrigued with the idea of a philosopher who uses her background in ethics to solve unusual mysteries. The book was such a delight that I made a special effort to find the other books featuring Isabel Dalhousie. Not once was I disappointed---in each book there was a perfect meshing of the characters, a whimsical sense of humor, and life-affirming insight---goo...more
Jan 10, 2013
Joyce
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
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To fully appreciate this book, the reader definitely needs to read the first book in this series. It had been a long time since I had read that first book so I struggled at first to make sense of what was going on with some of the characters. The Corduroy Mansions series revolve around a group of people and one dog, Freddie LaHaye, who live in an old mansion - converted into apartments-- in London and one woman, Berthea Snark, who lives nearby. Smith does a great job of demonstrating common weak...more
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This fell way short of my expectations, after The Careful Use of Compliments. The wry British humour is still there: especially the way in which he treats hallowed British institutions such as the MI6, the publishing industry etc. There are also passages which are outright funny, and will have you laughing. Consider the following gem:
Americans do not mince their words - it is one of their great qualities, and indeed one of the great causes of misunderstanding between the United States and the Un...more
Americans do not mince their words - it is one of their great qualities, and indeed one of the great causes of misunderstanding between the United States and the Un...more
I very much enjoyed this. Heartwarming and humorous. Lots of interesting characters. Love the super short chapters. This could definitely be a bathroom read thanks to those, but I chose to read it in a couple of long sittings instead.
One note, even though it doesn't really indicate this on the cover, you really should not read this as a standalone novel. Strictly speaking, you could do so, but you'd really be missing out. All of these characters are so wonderfully introduced in Corduroy Mansions...more
One note, even though it doesn't really indicate this on the cover, you really should not read this as a standalone novel. Strictly speaking, you could do so, but you'd really be missing out. All of these characters are so wonderfully introduced in Corduroy Mansions...more
The second of McCall Smith's "Corduroy Mansions" serial novels is, except for a misstep with the story thread of the book's title, is another fun charmer from this author, and I enjoyed it even more than the first book. Nearly all of the characters from the first reappear: Wine merchant William, deciding whether to let his Pimlico terrier, Freddie de la Hay, participate in a government mission; Caroline, still figuring out her relationship with fellow art student James; Berthea, psychologist and...more
The Dog Who Came In From The Cold is the second in the Corduroy Mansions series by Alexander McCall Smith. Once again we join the people of Corduroy Mansions and their friends. An acquaintance who works for MI6 visits wine merchant William French, and his Pimlico terrier, Freddie de la Hay, is drafted to serve his country. Berthea Snark’s brother Terence Moongrove finds his new Porsche makes him feel amorous and is excited about water memory and morphic resonance. Caroline tries to decide whethe...more
Having just read "Corduroy Mansions", I went to the telegraph.uk website and read the sequel a.s.a.p. Not overwhelmed by this pleasant read, I am afraid. The book was a bit... unsatisfying, with several of the characters introduced in book 1 merely mentioned in book 2, and barely any time spent with several others. Perhaps the book needed to be longer (which would please more than just this reader, I am sure) or perhaps the number of characters was a bit too ambitious to start with... it seemed...more
Alexander McCall Smith is an incredibly prolific writer, and if I were looking to get an advanced degree in English literature, I'd consider doing a compare and contrast study of the various series of books he's written with attention to character development, use of inner voice, and twining together largely independent stories into single novels and then weaving them into a series of novels. But, alas, I must work for a living now, so I will just note that in his Corduroy Mansions series, he's...more
Alexander McCall Smith has a couple of series that I read--The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswanan and the Isabel Dalhousie series, about a philosophy editor in Scotland. This is book 2 in The Corduroy Mansions novels. The main character is a Pimlico terrier named Freddie de la Hay. The dog doesn't talk or solve mysteries. He's a dog-dog but he affects the lives of people around him. There are always several tales being told of being who are connected to Corduroy Mansions. It is imm...more
Poor Pimlico Terrior, Freddie de la Hay - he's been recruited by MI6 to infiltrate a Russian spy ring and it's up to his owner, William French, to rescue him. Other residents of Corduroy Mansions are in crises of one sort of another, too. Caroline must evaluate her relationship with the germ-obsessed James. Dee, the health food devotee, wants to market a sudoku remedy. And literary agent, Barbara Ragg, has decided to represent an author who claims his work, "Autobiography of a Yeti" was dictated...more
Not my favorite of of the many McCall Smith books I've read. As always, I enjoyed his characters, but this plot jumped the shark in some ways. Usually his books are more about relationships and philosophy and less about sensational, bordering on silly, plots. We have a literary agent taking seriously a manuscript that purports to be the autobiography of a Yeti, an M16 plot that involves cloak-and-dagger agents asking an ordinary man to allow his dog to carry a recording device in his collar amon...more
I noticed this book on the library's "new fiction" shelf and remembered how much I have enjoyed other books by Alexander McCall Smith. I was not disappointed!
This is the second in a new series called the Corduroy Mansions novels. These stories seem to be set in England, rather than in Botswana (as the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series). So a refreshing new setting with fun new characters.
It was a little confusing with so many different characters in this one, but I decided to just go with the na...more
This is the second in a new series called the Corduroy Mansions novels. These stories seem to be set in England, rather than in Botswana (as the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series). So a refreshing new setting with fun new characters.
It was a little confusing with so many different characters in this one, but I decided to just go with the na...more
I love these books, especially listenting to them. The characters are an absolute hoot and I love the situations they get into as well as how they get out of them. Each character and situation is infused with droll British humor, with my favorite of course being Pimlico terrior Freddy De-la-hay. As the title indicates, Freddy is recruited by MI6 and has quite an adventure until rescued by his owner and Corduroy Mansions resident William. I missed hearing directly about MP Oedipus Snark in this o...more
Once I recovered from my fit of pique that the "Corduroy Mansions" series has very little to do with the Pimlico neighborhood where it is set, and where I once lived, I started to appreciate the mild whimsy of this ensemble-cast story written in the same vein as "44 Scotland Street." This time around, the most endearing character is a "Pimlico terrier" (a cross between Airedale and border collie, which could only, in my opinion, result in a highly unpredictable bundle of canine energy). Anyway,...more
Another charming series from Alexander McCall Smith, this one set in a block of flats in London, tells the tales of a group of endearing individuals living in various flats in the comfortably named Corduroy Mansions. The characters and situations will be familiar to fans of his other series (the woman with a strikingly handsome and sensitive younger partner, the thoughts of an older man's canine companion, the young adults unsure of their career path, the take-charge middle-aged women) but McCal...more
No 2 in the Corduroy Mansions series. Freddie goes to work as a spy for MI6, to try to uncover information about the Russian mafia, while William hopes to begin a relationship with his spy contact. Caroline tries to work out if James is homosexual, bisexual or just has a compulsive disorder that prevents him from kissing her. Berthea Snark foils two New Agers trying to take over her brother's house and La Ragg heads off to Scotland with her new fiancee, leaving the keys to her flat with her busi...more
Another delightful tale from Alexander McCall Smith. This second volume of Corduroy Mansions continues to follow the various residents' lives in short chapters. Perhaps this was also serialized in a newspaper, as was 44 Scotland Street. Freddie de la Hay is a Pimlico terrier recently acquired by William, and unexpectedly recruited by MI6. Relationships in various guises are tried on, discarded, recast, enhanced and so on by the various inhabitants. As William observes after studying Freddie de l...more
After 78 episodes, this web novel has finally concluded. All in all, it was a great experience. At first, I thought I would be annoyed at the forced wait between episodes (no way to simply keep reading to find out what happens!) But after a while, I found it to be integral to the enjoyment. And I also enjoyed the comments from readers from all over the world. The novel itself was full of wryly-humourous incidents and gentle wisdom - like all his novels! I highly recommend interested readers to k...more
I received this book thru a Goodreads giveaway.
Once I received it, I quickly read the first book in this series, Corduroy Mansions. I was a little disappointed with that one, but did my duty to read the next book. I believe The Dog Who Came In From The Cold was better, or maybe because I'd read the first book first, I was more familiar with the characters and had lowered expectations.
I do think that the second book has more plot than the first, and there was more tension. I realize that these we...more
Once I received it, I quickly read the first book in this series, Corduroy Mansions. I was a little disappointed with that one, but did my duty to read the next book. I believe The Dog Who Came In From The Cold was better, or maybe because I'd read the first book first, I was more familiar with the characters and had lowered expectations.
I do think that the second book has more plot than the first, and there was more tension. I realize that these we...more
Charming and enjoyable but not quite as good as the first. Tone not quite as light, and there were not quite as many of the clever observations that McCall Smith does so well. On the other hand, the characters and developing and becoming a bit more complex. For example, Eddie, William's ne'er-do-well son, who is almost a "bad guy" in the first book, shows an admirable trait or two in the second, and one wonders if perhaps he might actually get a job in the third?
Definitely worth a read.
And I wi...more
Definitely worth a read.
And I wi...more
After reading American Rust, by Philip Meyer, which was beautifully written but such a depressing story of despair and bleak hopeless in the devastated mill towns of Western Pennsylvania, I needed a "comfort food" read, and felt fortunate to find Alexander McCall Smith's sequel to Corduroy Mansions. Smith is a such a fine writer, sweet, and optimistic, but always with a touch of the dark side. Eg, in book 1, the jealous son kidnaps Freddie de la Hay the terrier, to participate in a dog fight. Bu...more
These books are so fun. They're comforting and wonderful. They're well-written, the characters are excellent, the plots are never too worrying, and they're just fun to read.
This one got three stars rather than four because I really never bought the Freddie de la Hay as spy storyline. That seemed a little far-fetched for the scope of the book. The problem with a serial, I imagine, though is that once an author starts a plotline, he's committed. He can't go back and rewrite. So I'll forgive him fo...more
This one got three stars rather than four because I really never bought the Freddie de la Hay as spy storyline. That seemed a little far-fetched for the scope of the book. The problem with a serial, I imagine, though is that once an author starts a plotline, he's committed. He can't go back and rewrite. So I'll forgive him fo...more
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Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what...more
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“They passed the rest of the journey in silence, not because of any awkwardness, but because neither wished conversation to break the spell that the unfolding Highland landscape was weaving about them. And what remarks were needed here? If one listens to the talk of people looking at scenes of great natural beauty, their words are often revealing. “Isn’t it beautiful?” is what is most frequently said; to which the reply, ‘Yes, beautiful,” adds little. What is happening, of course, is a sharing. We wish to share beauty as if it were a discovery; but one can share in silence, and perhaps the sharing is all the more powerful for it.”
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