#or give em out as freebies :D

[tizzymcwizzy]

finally got around to carving some eraser stamps this summer!! ive wanted to try my hand at linocut for the longest time and it was actually a ton of fun :D

[rachreads]

y’all remember that adult job i said i was getting? well, i got it so the bruhl shrine has received a massive upgrade. >:)

more pics and artist links below ;)))

The shelf itself is an IKEA Milsbow with four Mittled LED cabinet lights on the underside of every shelf to give it some light. I did have to drill a hole in the bottom self to feed some cords though, but other than that it was pretty simple to put together! :D

The framed The King's Man (2021) poster on the left was a freebie that I got for attending the opening night showing of the movie! I was the only person in the theater with my friend, so we nabbed about seven of 'em and handed them out to fellow Bruhl and Kingsman appreciators in our friend grounp.

The All the King's Men poster underneath isn't Bruhl related, but it was a gift from another friend who knows how much I like the Kingsman movie series. I also have a Kingsman shrine in my living room (and a Talking Heads shrine, and a Re-Animator shrine, and a Vladmir Nobokov shrine.... i am so completely normal).

Everything below reads left to right, I'll try to include links to artists where I can!

Comic books in the back are issues 2-4 of Thunderbolts presents Zemo: Born Better (which isn't canon to the MCU, and honestly is not my favorite, but the cover art looks cool lol) and the first collected volume of the original Thunderbolts run.

The black picture frames on the left are a sticker set from @injureddreams on their Etsy store and can be found here! The keychain in the golden frame on the right is also from their store, and is sadly sold out :(, but the store page is here.

Speaking of keychains, I have two on order from Noble Demons that are currently getting bounced around in my campus mail system that will go in those empty spots in the frame. Those two can be found here and here.

The funko pop on the left is the limited edition dancing Zemo from the Collector Corps subscription box (although you can find them resold on Amazon and the like for ~20 bucks), and the funko pop on the right is the regular Zemo pop from the FATWS line from 2021. These are also on sale for around ~10 bucks on Amazon.

The figpin in the very middle is the MCU Zemo pin from the FATWS line that was released in 2021.

The plush in the very middle was actually made by me :D. You can find the pattern on Etsy here, but if you're curious about the specific yarns used, you can check out my ravelry posts about it here.

And finally, the enamel pins in the golden frame on the right are from ChingonPinz on Etsy, but unfortunately are not sold anymore.

The DVD/Bluray collection on the left has German imports of Schule (2000) and Lessons of a Dream (2011), as well as American DVDs/Blurays of Deeply, The Edukators, Lila Lila, Inglourious Basterds, and The Cloverfield Paradox. Civil War bluray on the right is also a US release.

Special attention called to the Good Bye Lenin DVD on the left, which is the US Special Edition that has director's and actor's commentary tracks, including one with Daniel on it! Geez, if only someone were to rip those tracks and upload them to the internet. Maybe in a masterlist on a pinned post. Maybe at the top of their blog. That would be crazy hahahahahaha.

The magazine in the back is the European version of Issue 46 of The Rake, which contains the amazing and wonderful photoshoot that can be seen in this post here. (pinkie promise i did not spend $200 on that, I got it on eBay for like 20$)

The art board print in the middle is from rindelamater on Redbubble and can be found here.

The Good Bye Lenin Blu-Ray that is laying on the bottom of the shelf is an import from South Korea, and is actually the only region A blu-ray of GBL in existence since there has been no re-release in the US. I imported mine from eBay, although I think I have seen a few floating around on other sites.

Good Bye Lenin and Inglourious Basterds CD scores are pretty common, I don't think I need to explain those.

The plushie of Zeems on the right is from RedCapStore on etsy and can be found here. This was actually a gift from a friend and I hold it very dear to my heart. :)

The Laszlo Brainrot begins.

Angel of Darkness and Surrender, New York on the left are US mass market paperbacks. Super easy to find. :)

The framed art print in the very middle is my very favorite drawing from @pannypunkpanda's 365 day art challenge from last year! You can find this specific one on their RedBubble shop here.

The rest of the items on this shelf (including the custom Leuchtturm1917 Journal on the left *drool*) are from a PR box that was released for TNT's version of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness in 2020. In anticipation for the season, an online murder mystery party was held and journalists recieved a box of props that acted as clues for the mystery. There's an article covering the online event linked here for those curious. I managed to snag a box from a reseller on eBay for around 60 bucks, although that was the first and only time I have ever seen it available. :(

The box on the very bottom right is the mailing box that the murder mystery props from the shelf above all came in.

The board game on the left is a custom box and game that was only given out to the cast and crew of the first or second season of the Alienist iirc and is not easily available on the market. I, again, picked mine up from a reseller on eBay, but it's pretty hard to find.

The book in the middle is the tie-in edition of The Alienist by Caleb Carr, which is completely annotated and highlighted to shit by your's truly. :)

The picture frame on the right again has stickers from @pannypunkpanda's RedBubble shop linked here, and another sticker in the very middle from Elizabeth Ryan Shepard's RedBubble shop linked here.

And that's it! I may make another list with my holy grail items that I'm still on the lookout for but honestly I might just like to gatekeep those. It might make my chances of finding them better oops.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #169

Two builds in one day? That’s right! Today’s my birthday, and that means I get to pick the servants! As a birthday gift to myself, we’re making Caster of the Nightless City! As usual, expect spoilers in the build breakdown below the cut and in their character sheet here!

Scheherazade is a Creation Bard to truly bring her stories to life, and a Genie Warlock to create her own Bedchamber of Survival.

Race and Background

Wildly, Scheherazade is a Human, giving her +1 to all abilities. She’s also a Guild Artisan with one of the most demanding patrons in the world, giving her proficiency with Insight and Persuasion. 

Ability Scores

Your Charisma better be as high as possible, you’re literally famous for your storytelling skills. After that is Wisdom. Anyone can read a story, but to tell a story you’ve got to be able to read the audience. Your Intelligence is also pretty good, because let’s be honest, remembering over 1,000 stories is pretty goddamn impressive. Your Dexterity isn’t awful, because we need to be able to go from standing to dogeza in seconds. This means your Constitution and Strength are rather low. Sadly, telling stories doesn’t make you all that battle hardened.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: Being a bard gives you proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves to avoid fireballs and being banished to other dimensions. (Though I guess banishment is better than death?) You also get proficiency in three bard skills, that is to say, three of any skill. Performance for storytelling, Acrobatics for faster dogezas, and History for more story material.

You can use Bardic Inspiration to give a d6 to an ally Charisma Mod times per long rest, and these dice can be added to pretty much any d20 roll to make it a bit better. (Not yours though, heaven forbid you have to get out there and... attack things.)

Speaking of not attacking things, let’s talk Spells. You cast em with Charisma, and get stuff like Blade Ward for taking less damage and Friends for convincing people to let you live in the first place. You also get Charm Person for a similar reason, Bane to weaken their offense if they still want to try anything, Feather Fall to avoid death by heights, and Silent Image for the first of your storied illusions.

2. Bard 2: Second level bards become Jacks of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to ability checks they’re not proficient in. By becoming more useful, you’re less likely to get killed! Probably. You also get a Song of Rest to boost healing during short rests. Healing is good, healing helps people not die. Finally, your Magical Inspiration lets allies add your inspiration dice to damage or healing caused by spells. Again, healing is good, and I guess doing more damage can be nice sometimes.

Speaking of doing damage, we’re not doing that. Instead, grab Sleep for a bedtime story.

3. Bard 3: Graduating from the college of Creation will help you bring your stories to life thanks to your Performance of Creation. As an action you can create a nonmagical object once per long rest or by spending a 2nd level spell slot. The item must be medium or smaller, and can only be worth at most 20 times your bard level in GP.

You can also help your allies star in legends of their own with Stories of Potential that add extra effects to your bardic inspiration depending on how they’re used. Ability checks get advantage on rolling the inspiration, attack rolls deal thunder damage to nearby creatures if they fail a constitution save, and saving throws add temporary HP to their users.

You can also cast Calm Emotions to keep the king from beheading you in the morning.

4. Warlock 1: Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get some help from a Genie. Picking this patron gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object like, say, a scroll case, within which you can find a Bottled Respite that you can hang out in for up to 2x your proficiency bonus hours per long rest, but you can only enter once per long rest. Any items you leave behind stay in the respite until the vessel is destroyed or you take them out again. Also, I gotta remember to point out the inside is bigger than the outside, space isn’t an issue for you.

You also learn to imbue your attacks with a Genie’s Wrath, adding thunder damage equal to your proficiency bonus to one attack per turn. You don’t really attack that much, but it’s nice to make every bit count.

Speaking of attacking, you can actually do that with your new Spells! You still use Charisma, but you have Pact Magic, so these slots don’t mix with your old ones. The plus side is they recharge on short rests instead of long ones, and you can still cast bard spells with warlock slots and vice versa.

You get Minor Illusion for cheap lifelike stories, as well as Eldritch Blast for the ever-present caster balls. For first level spells, you get Detect Evil and Good and Thunderwave for free, as well as Comprehend Languages because copyright doesn’t exist in D&D, and Protection from Evil and Good. Some kings are evil, some are good, but very few are neutral. (WARNING: does not actually protect against good or evil aligned humanoids)

5. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, ways to customize the selling your soul experience. Armor of Shaodws gives you free mage armor to avoid dying, and Eldritch Mind makes it easier to concentrate on your spells, which are keeping you from getting killed.

Speaking of spells, Sense Emotion lets you read the prevailing emotion of a nearby creature as an action, and you can repeat the action each turn. Good storytelling requires you know what your audience wants.

6. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks get a Pact Boon, and Pact of the Tome gives you a super cool magic scroll that gives you three cantrips from any spell list. You get Guidance and Resistance for added protection, and Mage Hand. Handling hot objects can be dangerous! Now you don’t have to do that.

Besides that, you get second level spells here, like Enthrall. Being the center of attention is dangerous, but you’re the most personable member of the party, so this might be less dangerous than letting them talk. You also get Phantasmal Force and Gust of Wind for free, letting you attack with fictional characters and just make things a bit more dramatic.

7. Warlock 4: At fourth level you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, which will be used to round up your Dexterity and Constitution for a higher AC and higher HP. Not dying’s good, you should try it out.

You also get Prestidigitation to add minor effects to your stories, and Flock of Familiars to summon background characters.

8. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Major Image to make larger effects for your stories. You also get Create Food and Water and Wind Wall for free.

On top of that, the invocation One with Shadows lets you turn invisible as an action in dim light or darker, and lasts until you move or take an action. When a truly good storyteller gets going, the story takes on a life of its own, and they just sort of... fade into the background.

9. Warlock 6: Sixth level genilocks get an Elemental Gift, giving you resistance to thunder damage. Like Cursed Arm always says, you can’t travel the desert without protection from wind. As a bonus action, you can now fly for 10 minutes Proficiency times per long rest. Admittedly you don’t really do that too often, but I’m sure you can illusion up a big genie hand or something to lift you up.

You can also summon a main character now thanks to Summon Fey. You can create a small fey creature in one of three moods that can teleport around and fight for you. Fuming fey get advantage on attacks after teleporting, mirthful fey can charm creatures, and tricksy fey create magical darkness which you can use to turn invisible.

10. Warlock 7: Congrats on your fourth level spell slots! Your freebie spells are Phantasmal Killer and Greater Invisibility to put less focus on yourself and more focus on the terrifying monsters you can summon. You can also use Hallucinatory Terrain to reshape the world into the world of your story. You can also use Trickster’s Escape once per long rest to cast Freedom of Movement on yourself to get the hell out of dangerous situations.

11. Warlock 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for better spells and better stories. You also learn how to Charm Monsters to avoid even more danger by just... getting along with everything.

12. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, like the freebies Creation to make even more nonsense out of nothing and Seeming to again, avoid danger. On top of those, you can use Modify Memory to retcon your stories to prevent your audience from getting too upset. You also gain the Gift of the Protectors, allowing you or another creature to write its name on part of your scroll. The scroll can hold the names of Proficiency people, and once per long rest the first creature to drop to 0 hp sticks around at 1 hp instead. You can also erase names if you have a falling out, but since it’s first come first served you might just want to keep this to yourself.

13. Warlock 10: Tenth level genielocks get a Sanctuary Vessel, allowing you to take up to 5 willing creatures into your Genie’s Vessel with you. You can eject creatures as a bonus action, by leaving yourself, dying (don’t do that one), or by destroying the vessel.

On top of all of that, creatures that stay in the vessel for at least 10 minutes get all the benefits of a short rest, plus they add your proficiency to any healing they get from hit dice. That’s on top of the d6 they were already getting from your song of rest.

Oh right, you get another cantrip too. Grab Blade Ward again. You can never be too careful.

14. Bard 4: Yeah, did you think we were done with bards? Nope! This level of bard gives us another ASI that’ll max out your Charisma for the best spells possible!

You also learn Message, because miscommunication can be deadly, and Lesser Restoration. You never know what kind of status effects might doom your party, after all...

15. Bard 5: Fifth level bards get their inspiration bumped up to d8s, and they finally become a Font of Inspiration to recharge their inspiration on short rests. I wanted to get sanctuary vessel as quickly as possible for the sake of getting your bedchamber of survival, but it’s awfully tempting to put these two levels earlier, ngl.

You also learn how to Feign Death, because nobody’s going to bother killing you if you’re already dead, right? This spell makes you or the targeted creature effectively dead by the reckoning of anyone around them. They can’t take actions, are blinded, and can’t move. They get resistance to all damage except psychic, and any diseases or poisons they’re affected by are frozen until the spell ends an hour later.

16. Bard 6: Sixth level bards can use Countercharm to protect their party from effects that would charm or frighten them, giving them advantage on those saves for a round.

You can also put on an Animating Performance to turn a large or smaller object into a Dancing Item, which follows your orders, given by your bonus action. You can do this once per long rest, or by spending a third level spell slot.

Your last bard spell is Catnap, putting up to three creatures to sleep for 10 minutes. If they stay asleep the entire time, they get the benefits of a short rest. Dying of overwork... what a horrifying concept.

17. Warlock 11: At eleventh level, instead of getting your spell slots made bigger you get a Mystic Arcanum, allowing you to cast a sixth level spell once per long rest. Guards and Wards is very useful if you’re paranoid, creating wards to protect up to 2,500 square feet of space (a.k.a. 100 5′ squares). You can specify creatures that are immune to effects, or a password that does the same thing.

In corridors, fog fills the area, and forks in the road have a 50% chance of forcing creatures down the wrong way.

Doors are magically locked, and up to 10 doors in the area can be covered by illusions.

Stairs are covered in Webs that regrow when destroyed.

You can also place: Dancing Lights in four corridors, Magic Mouth in two places, Stinking Cloud in two places, Gust of Wind in one corridor or room, and Suggestion in one five foot square.

Casting Guards and Wards in the same place every day for a year makes it permanent.

18. Warlock 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Constitution for better concentration and health. You also learn your last Invocation, Minions of Chaos! Once per long rest you can cast Conjure Elemental using a warlock spell slot. It is a little bit risky, but even you have to be willing to stick your neck out at some point. Might as well be level 18.

19. Warlock 13: Your seventh level Mystic Arcanum is Mirage Arcane, allowing you to reshape reality in a square mile, altering the entire terrain to your story and even making entire structures out of nothing. Even creatures with true sight will still feel the illusion, so feel free to recreate the tower of babel and hide out on the top of it.

20. Warlock 14: Your capstone level gives you a Limited Wish from your patron, recreating any spell of fifth level or lower once per 1d4 long rests. Sometimes your story just needs a Maelstrom, and nobody’s going to wait for you to take 9 levels of druid just to finish a story.

Pros:

If your DM rewards creativity and you’ve got the mind thoughts to power this build, this build will treat you very nicely. This whole thing is basically an excuse for the roleplayer inside of you to ham up your acting, chew the scenery, and distract everyone from the rogue rifling through their pockets.

Speaking of distractions you can make some really good ones. Show up to the BBEG’s lair, butter them up with some stories, then trick them into entering your vessel, and then they’re trapped in there for up to 12 hours. If you can trick them into allowing you to catnap them, that gives the rest of your party a full 10 minutes to ransack the place before they even know what’s happening. You can always kick them out if they’re being unwelcome guests, but there’s no way for them to leave on their own outside of killing you. And that’s easier said than done, because...

You’re really hard to fight. Between all the illusions, summoning creatures to fight on your behalf, the invisibility, and the altering reality in a mile radius, landing a blow on you is an ordeal, especially if you know they’re coming.

Cons:

If you’re actually stuck in a cage match with an enemy it’s gonna take a while, because you really aren’t built for damage. You have a negative strength stat, and your first damaging spell doesn’t show up until level four. Just bring them into the vessel, help them relax, and put them to sleep with catnap, that’s way less work than actually fighting them.

On a similar note, anything that can see through your illusions is going to cut through you like butter, because you’re pretty squishy. Only 15 AC and just shy of 150 HP means you should avoid fights like... well, you do in canon.

Another side effect of your squishiness is that your concentration saves aren’t that great, which is really bad for an illusionist/summoner. Neither your animated item nor your invisibility use concentration though, so you can actually get away with more than you’d think, it’s just a complicated juggling act. And trust me, you do not want to drop them in the middle of combat.

[tinkerbelljayne]

“Can you help me set up a blog so that I can get free stuff?” is a question I’ve been asked

…a lot.

When my blog began to take off in 2014 and the parcels started arriving at my desk, people couldn’t believe all the free stuff I was getting (and by people, I also mean me). From shampoo, to ice cream, to holidays, everyone wanted a slice of the action.

“I want free stuff too” they would tell me. “How do I get the free stuff?”

The honest answer? Hard work; creating good content, posting regularly, engaging with readers, giving up weekends and evenings to work completely unpaid. But these people didn’t want to hear that. They didn’t like it when I told them the truth, that I had started my blog in 2011 and it had taken three years to get to this point. They just wanted the free stuff. And regardless of my advice they were still going to go ahead and try to get it.

These people are called Blaggers. The evil twins of Bloggers. They look like us, sound like us, they’ve got all our moves down to a tee, they’re just missing one thing – the blog.

But do they even need it? With so many blogs out there now, literally thousands upon thousands, does anybody even check anymore? We all know the story about Hannah Ewens, the Vice Journalist who was photographed A LOT at London Fashion Week in 2014 and blagged her way into VIP events posing as a Fashion Blogger. She had no blog and yet that didn’t matter, she looked the part; OTT street style with a male photographer by her side and BOOM suddenly everyone wanted to know which online store she bought her iPhone charger necklace from (it was literally just a charger worn around the neck).

via Vice

Now, I don’t actually mind Blaggers trying to blag themselves some free goodies. I mean, why not? I LOVE free stuff. I’d be totally lying if I said ‘free stuff doesn’t interest me’. It does, because, y’know, free means you don’t pay for it. And I’ve no shame in admitting that I’ve used my blog to contact brands with a few cheeky freebie requests and collaboration ideas (although before anyone gets narky I also want to point out that I only accept free stuff that I am genuinely interested in sampling/reviewing/writing about, so pipe down).

No, I don’t have a problem with people trying to get free stuff or pretending to be something there not, thats fine, and part of the new 2017 me is about me minding my own business and just letting people do what they want to do.

But what I do have a problem with is the Blaggers that are taking things away from the hard working bloggers. Whilst reading the March issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, I read an article by the Features writer Josie Copson, titled How did this women fool every bouncer in town?

Josie’s mission was to try and blag her way into as many VIP parties and clubs as she could, picking up tips and tricks along the way for the Cosmo readers. But one trick I was shocked to read about was snagging event information from someone’s IG story. You see, one person shared an exclusive invitation on his InstaStory and a gal that Josie was interviewing, lets call her an ‘Expert Party crasher’, showed Josie how easy it is to grab all the deets you need for a VIP event by simply watching this IGstory. The two of them were able to see the location, the time of the event and the oh-so-crucial RSVP email. Using these details they were able to blag themselves into the event and onto the red carpet that very night!

Okay, so it was kind of silly of this person to share that online, surely we all know by now not to post that kind of information on social media (it’s like the people who post the entirety of their boarding passes on Twitter with the hashtag #holiday, you mays well just hand over your passport too). But still, it made me wonder how many others are using that tactic when bloggers share their exclusive invites online? And although this expert Party Crasher may not have blagged her way in as the actual person from whom she snagged the deets off, if numbers for the event are limited or the place becomes at capacity, her attendance could mean others being turned away at the door, others who worked hard to get that invite.

But it’s not just party invites and red carpet events that are being swiped right before Bloggers very eyes, some Blaggers are committing actual fraud!

via Twitter/emshelx

Two years ago, Lifestyle Blogger EmShel of emtalks.co.uk was the victim of Blogger Identity Theft.  Yes, you read that right – Blogger Identity Theft – and yes, that is a thing. Someone had created a fake email account in Emma’s name and had contacted a whole bunch of brands requesting free stuff, from skincare products to, erm, jam!

Because this fraudster was using Em’s actual stats, which as an award winning blogger were pretty impressive, all the brands of course came flooding back with yes after yes after yes. It was only when the brands realised they weren’t receiving any coverage or reviews on the products they had sent out, that they one by one began to contact her via Twitter to chase her up. To which point Em cluelessly replied ‘but I didn’t request anything.’

via Twitter/emshelx

This IS fraud and the police obviously had to get involved. It’s one thing to blag your way into a party, but it is astonishing to think someone would actually commit fraud just to get free stuff (and free Jam, really?) Not only was the fraudster wasting the time, money and efforts of the brands, but he/she was damaging the reputation of a blogger who had spent years building up her own brand.

There are always going to be people out there who want the goods but don’t want to put in the hard work. Let them be. These Blaggers may be unintentionally ruining a few things for the hard-working Bloggers, but here are my tips on how to make sure you are always completely identifiable as a Blogger and not a Blagger AND  how to prevent people from using your brand/name:

BE A BLOGGER, NOT A BLAGGER

Never share private information on any of your social media platforms, including your own address, the address of a PR or a brand or the address of a meeting place/event.

Never share email contacts online and especially don’t share scannable barcodes online, not even on a disappearing image like on IG or Snapchat.

Try to arrive at an event early or at least bang on time. The whole fashionably late thing is BS. Arriving on time, rather than an hour and a half later, not only protects your name or brand from me being blagged by someone else, but it also shows commitment and enthusiasm to your host (plus it means you normally manage to get first dibs on drinks & seats, ahem, just saying).

Have your blogs email address somewhere on your homepage, as well as in your social media platform bio’s. That will hopefully make someone think twice about creating a fake one, and even if they do, having your real email address everywhere will be easy for brands to spot should they be suspicious of having a potential Blagger on their hands.

Create a media kit with all your stats to send to brands to back up your credibility. Maybe send along examples of previous collaborations and previous campaigns or perhaps even screenshots of your WordPress or Google analytics. Anyone can send an email saying ‘I get ### hits a month’ but you can actually prove it!

Meet your PR’s & Contacts. If they know you by face then they certainly won’t be letting in someone else using your name or website.

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Bloggers vs. Blaggers “Can you help me set up a blog so that I can get free stuff?” is a question I've been asked…

[infactforgetthepark]

[Free eBooks] Black Run & Adam's Rib by Antonio Manzini [Italian Ski Resort Mystery]

Black Run & Adam's Rib by Italian author Antonio Manzini are the 1st & 2nd novels in the Rocco Schiavone series of contemporary police procedural mystery/crime thrillers, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins' Harper imprint.

These were originally published in Italian by Sellerio as Pista nera and La costola di Adamo in 2013 and 2014 and are translated by Anthony Shugaar. The 2nd novel is Barnes & Noble's featured Free Fridays selection for the weekend and is probably a glitch, as only the 1st novel is free in other stores as well (as is usual for the B&N Free Fridays book). This is apparently being made free to help promote the upcoming release of the 3rd novel's translation, Out of Season, expected in October.

The series is set in the Italian ski resort town of Aosta in the Alps, starring a deputy police prefect who is exiled there after running afoul of the wrong people in Rome. These installments see him making the adjustment, as he gets to know the town, its history, and people in the course of solving the case of a mangled body found in the mountains, and then a burglary.

Offered in the US only, available at multiple retailers.

Free for a limited time @ Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Google Play (looks like the freebie was available in the US only when I spot-checked assorted regional stores, YMMV, and some retailers may only provide the freebie in certain countries)

The 2nd novel, Adam's Rib, is free at B&N only.

Description Already an international hit, a sly, sizzling mystery—the first in a sensational crime series—set in the Italian Alps, reminiscent of the works of Andrea Camilleri, D. A. Mishani, Donna Leon, and Henning Mankell.

Getting into serious trouble with the wrong people, deputy prefect of police Rocco Schiavone is exiled to Aosta, a small, touristy alpine town far from his beloved Rome. The sophisticated and crotchety Roman despises mountains, snow, and the provincial locals as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. But he loves solving crimes.

When a mangled body has been discovered on a ski run above Champoluc, Rocco immediately faces his first challenge—identifying the victim, a complex procedure complicated by his ignorance of the customs, dialect, and history of his new home. Proud and undaunted, Rocco makes his way among the ski runs, mountain huts, and aerial tramways, meeting ski instructors, Alpine guides, the hardworking, enigmatic folk of Aosta, and a few beautiful locals eager to give him a warm welcome.

It won't be easy, this mountain life, especially with a corpse or two in the mix. But then there's nothing that makes Rocco feel more at home than an investigation.

An insightful observer of human nature, Antonio Manzini writes with sly humor and a dash of irony, and introduces an irresistible hero—a fascinating blend of swagger, machismo, and vulnerability—in a colorful and atmospheric crime mystery series that is European crime fiction at its best.