"Chelsea Mansions" by Barry Maitland
Minotaur, 375 pp., $25.99
Reviewed by David Marshall James


Some places never give up their deep, dark secrets.

Sometimes, however, a seemingly inconsequential incident-- perhaps the visitation of a seemingly innocuous person-- may tip a row of dominoes, as it were, resulting in a chain reaction that brings a house of secrets tumbling.

Such is the case with Chelsea Mansions, a row of imposing brick townhouses lining one side of a fashionable square at the intersection of some posh London postal codes.

The visitor in question-- a septugenarian Bostonian ostensibly in residence at a gone-to-seed hotel in Chelsea Mansions because of its proximity to the Chelsea Flower Show-- comes to a gruesome end, garnering the attention of a special crimes unit in New Scotland Yard headed by Chief Detective Inspector David Brock.

Devotees of Australian (by way of the U.K.) author Barry Maitland's Brock & Kolla series know that the CDI's protegee-- attractive,

The Best Time to Weigh Yourself
7 a.m.

People who step on the scale daily lost twice as much weight as those who weigh-in on a weekly basis, research shows. For your truest weight, hop on the scale early in the morning, just after waking up and using the bathroom. Resist the urge to step back on multiple times a day, though, as your weight can fluctuate by up to five pounds during the day depending on what you eat and drink and how active you are. That said, if constantly monitoring your weight makes you feel obsessive or anxious, ditch the scale and rely instead on how your clothing fits -- that's how Kirstie Alley keeps her new 100-pound weight loss in check!

8 a.m.
Platelets are a critical component of the blood that allow it to clot when you cut yourself. They're at their stickiest and most abundant early in the morning, says Jennifer Ackerman, so any accidental nicks with the razor are less likely to leave you gushing. (Unfortunately,

Lady Gaga's birthday gift to the Clintons: their own song dedications. (Photo by Stephanie Cabral/Yahoo!)

It was Bill Clinton's birthday celebration, but Lady Gaga had a special message for his wife, Hillary, at Saturday night's concert honoring the former president. "Sit back down where you belong in the oval office with those high heels on," crooned the pop superstar to the Secretary of State in the opening of her song "You and I," which she retitled "Hillary, You and I."

That wasn't the only lyrical liberty Gaga took during the start-studded event, "A Decade of Difference: A Concert Celebrating 10 Years of the William J. Clinton Foundation," streamed live on Yahoo.com.

Watch Lady Gaga's entire performance at the Clinton concert.

"I bet when you first met you'd do anything again to go out in Arkansas," she ad-libbed for "Billary" (as she dubbed them), who celebrated their 40th anniversary this year.

The concert was a tribute to the former president who just celebrated his 65th birthday, and a chance to raise awareness about the Clinton Foundation's humanitarian

Its gonna be my birthday so you better give me a gift!!! Lol joking but plz wish me Happy B-day its on 11/9/11 :P

So the ever-returning question: Why are teenage girls so mean? Well, there are two main reasons.

1. They don't like you.

It's as simple as that! If they see someone (especially someone they don't know) doing something "weird" or something they "don't like," then it's all over. The girl is going to go to her friends and tell them what the person did, and probably make a lot of it up. Then after that, she's not going to want her friends to see her with that person. I mean, what on earth would that do to her reputation (getting the sarcasm?)!?

2. They hear things from other people.

"Oh my gosh, Jenni! Did you hear that Charolette broke up with Johnny to go out with Hank?!"

Gasps. "That slut! Where did you hear that?"

Charoletter told Catherine, who told Angela, who told Katie, who told Sutton, who told me."

That's usually how it works. So, what if Jenni has a crush on Hank? Is she going to want to be friends with Charolette? No. She's going to want to make Charolette's life

I work in customer service for a major online retailer and Christmas in retail is obviously our busiest time of the year. With the holidays coming up I'm sure many of us will participate in the conveinence of online shopping, where we can do it all in one place in our own home while avoiding holdiday traffic at the stores. However, sometimes mistakes do happen and all the joys of online shopping become our nightmare and dealing with customer service only adds to our holiday stress. So I have created a list to help ease the stress of marking those items off our Christmas list, and if a problem does arise how to handle dealing with customer service without feeling like you've wasted your time.

Tip #1

Start Early! I would recommend starting your shopping early that way you can be asured to get everything you're looking for in a timley matter. Retailers are usually pretty slow durring the time frame where back to school is over but just before black Friday. It's the calm before the

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Direct Sales
scott@scottkellett.com