Echo Location

Shift Happens #3

by Frances Pauli

Stevie Roth gave up a chance at inter-dimensional adventure and settled for a life in the ordinary world. She almost convinced herself she made the right decision too, until Weldon Marks, out-of-this-world goofball and totally delicious dufus, shows up and reminds her exactly what she left behind. When he whisks her off on a job, Stevie couldn’t be happier. Except he vanishes again just as quickly, and his unpleasant parallel pops up to stalk her instead.

Now she’s back up to her neck in the insanity, and remembering quite clearly why she left. Weldon is acting cagey, his clone won’t leave her alone, and the invisible man is leading an investigation that seems hell-bent on spoiling any chance she has at keeping the one idiot she wants in her life for good.

Her world's turned completely upside down, her favorite snake has gone missing, and Stevie’s pretty sure the beat up box Weldon stashed in her living room hides something seriously illegal. If it does, she’s going to strangle him. If he doesn’t get himself killed first, that is.

196 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2012

About the author

Frances Pauli writes books about animals, hybrids, aliens, shifters, and occasionally ordinary humans. She tends to cross genre boundaries, but hovers around fantasy and science fiction with romantic tendencies.

Her work has won four Leo awards, two Coyotl awards, and has been nominated for an Ursa Major award.

She lives in Washington State with her family, a small menagerie, and far too many houseplants.

Reviews

[Skyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am rather giddily in love with this series.

Stevie and Weldon, who both first appeared in Aspect Ratio, are back front and center. Stevie is in her home dimension, trying to put behind her the experience of dealing with aspects, inter-dimensional travel, and a certain sexy exterminator in a fedora. But Weldon returns to invite her to accompany him on an out of this world job and, as happens with the Shift Happens series, wackiness ensues.

The humor, romance, and adventure is constant in this book, though it brings to the forefront what I've loved about this series from the start: for all the fantastical elements, the characters are real people with real problems. Misunderstandings, lack of communication, and projections is the real conflict in most relationships; this is very much true of Stevie and Weldon, and I love them all the more for it.

Pauli also manages to do what very few other authors can, which is to leave me in awe of the world she's created and keep me guessing as to how things will go. The book is never bogged down by the world building details and keeps up a comfortable pace that isn't too fast but doesn't drag.

I'm honored to be able to work with Ms. Pauli and eagerly await the fourth book, Pyramid Scheme. EAGERLY. Hint hint.

[Krista D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the Shift Happens series. I admit that I wasn't sure if I was going to like Echo Location because Chloe wasn't in it. In Aspect Ratio, Stevie and Weldon were introduced and I wasn't sure if I was a fan or not.

But, I have to say that I really do like Stevie and Weldon. I really liked this story about our world's pet store worker and an inter-dimensional bug killer.

While I missed Chloe and Andrew, I did enjoy Stevie and Weldon, plus the old faces of Ian and the gang.

Also, the scene with the crickets and the "omg! these are pets that sing and you hate them, what kind of monster are you?" conversation had me in stitches.

[Jaleta Clegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun read! I love Frances Pauli's books and this one is another great story. If you like dimension hopping exterminators, give this one a try. It's got just the right balance of romance and adventure and cool alien bugs.