The Labyrinths of Echo

The books making up The Labyrinths of Echo describe how Max, born in our world and having lived his first 30 years here, ends up in the city of Echo in another world, having been called there by the chief of the Secret Police, Sir Juffin Hully. Once a self-described “classic loser” who, if it weren’t for bad luck, wouldn’t have any luck at all, Max is an insomniac who sleeps all day, a night owl in a world of larks, a social outcast and a glutton with nothing to show for himself but empty cigarette packs - at twenty-something, Max is never the early bird and he never gets the worm. In the alternate world, Frei is deemed a species of magical secret agent, is made a member of the Department of Absolute Order, and must solve unimaginably extravagant cases with exceptional new powers. Fate smiles on Max in the city of Echo, where everything that happens to him happens for a reason, and the one-time slacker is known reverently as the “unequalled Sir Max.”

Frei made his English language debut in The Stranger (ISBN 978-1-59020-065-0), released by Overlook Press in April 2009.