No Rest for the Wicked

No Rest for the Wicked is the second volume of Widdershins. It introduces reoccuring protagonist Jack O'Malley and his friends Heinrich Wolfe and Ben Thackerey. The three are malform removers who uncover a conspiracy by Councilwoman Margery Fairbairn to use the Deadly Sin Sloth to cause wizards to fall asleep while casting, resulting in dangerous malforms with the hope of banning magic from Widdershins. It ends with Fairbairn being defeated and Wolfe and Mal deciding to stay in Widdershins to live and work with Ben.

Blurb
The most-magically charged city in England is in trouble, with invisible monsters caused by ill-formed spells roaming the streets, and wizards passing out by the dozen, stricken by some unknown ailment. Through coincidence (and perhaps a little intention) the fate of Widdershins rests in the hands of Jack O'Malley- A workshy vagrant who just happens to have the exact right gift needed to help, but no intention of doing so.

Aided by a kindly German violinist and a fussy wizard who only barely scraped through his degree, he'll have to save the city- whether he wants to or not.

Plot Summary
On arriving in Widdershins, vagrants Jack O’Malley and Heinrich Wolfe are arrested for fighting in a pub. Rather than be sent to prison, they agree to work for Councilwoman Fairbairn, helping their new housemate Benjamin Thackerey catch and desummon malforms--destructive spirits caused by incomplete spells. After a rocky introduction, they go to get new clothes together but are interrupted by a disturbance at the bakery next door. A wizard has fallen asleep imbuing the bread, releasing a disruptive Hunger malform. After working together to capture and desummon the malform, the trio head outside where they are confronted by an angry anti-magic mob. Mal and Ben argue, and when Ben storms off Mal is handed a recruitment flyer for the Lamplight supporters.

Over the next few weeks they continue to do their work, while Wolfe tries to piece together the mystery. On the night of the big mayoral debates, a giant malform destroys the theatre. When Mal arrives, he realises the malform can talk to him and wants to go home. He gets Wolfe to play the violin to calm it down while Ben desummons it. Fairbairn appears and demands Nicola arrest and execute the wizard responsible, while Nicola refuses to do and tells her to stop riling up the crowd.

The next afternoon, Wolfe and Mal argue about the situation, as Wolfe feels they should help get to the bottom of things and Mal just wants to leave it alone. Wolfe goes out to investigate alone, but is kidnapped by the Lamplight men he tries to question.

When they realise he is missing, Ben and Mal go to look for him and find the town overrun with malforms. They find Wolfe’s journal and realise he must have been taken by someone, so go to the police station to fetch Nicola. Together, they break into the Lamplight factory, but Fairbairn’s men attack them. Mal runs away, while Ben, Wolfe, and Nicola are taken hostage to be killed by Sloth.

It is revealed that Fairbairn has been using Sloth to imbue the lamplight oil across town to make wizards drowsy and fall asleep while casting, resulting in more malforms, which would make people distrust magic more and support her campaign. She only hired the boys because she wanted to look like she was doing something but expected them to fail.

Mal recruits the malforms of the town and they wreak havoc on Fairbairn and her men, freeing Wolfe and Ben in the process. Fairbairn accidentally starts a fire trying to defend herself. They evacuate the building, but Ben goes back to try and properly desummon Sloth rather than it get loose in Widdershins. He is knocked unconscious by Fairbairn, who offers him to Sloth, but when Mal rescues Ben at the last second she is fed on instead.

The building burns down, Sloth is freed, and Wolfe and Mal decide to stay in Widdershins and keep working for Ben, who has gone freelance.

Characters

 * Nicola Barber
 * Jack O'Malley (Main character)
 * Heinrich Wolfe (Main character)
 * Margery Fairbairn
 * Benjamin Thackerey (Main character)
 * Robert Hackett
 * Sloth (Deadly Sin antagonist)

Cameos

 * Harriet Barber
 * Sidney Malik

Locations

 * Gibbet Street
 * Offices for the Removal of Dangerous Malforms
 * Pins & Needles Family Tailors
 * Henry Lewis & Sons Bakery
 * Town Hall
 * The Royal Theatre
 * Lamplight Factory

Website
The post-book bonus content on the website for this book was 2 pages of Character Q&A.

Book
The print and PDF copies of the book include a 4 page comic about Mal teaching the buggerups to hand out business cards for the malform removal service.

Release
No Rest was released on a mostly Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule between March 12th 2012 and October 5th 2012.

No Rest was the first Widdershins book to be Kickstarted. The campaign ran October 31st 2012 - November 20th 2012 and 268 backers pledged £6,390.

The unique Kickstarter rewards for this campaign included a buggerup keyring, a double-sided Mal bookmark, and a pdf + physical copy of the Widdershins Concept Art & Sketch Book.