Find the Lady

Find the Lady is the sixth Widdershins book. It is framed as Harry's grandfather, Henry Barber, telling the story of how he and Harry's grandmother, Isabelle Holt met on their first adventure.

Blurb
"Reckless young bounty hunter Henry Barber always considered himself to have luck on his side, and rarely said no to a good adventure. But when an all-too-suave stranger requested he bring in a mysterious amulet and the scholarly wizard studying it, Henry soon found he'd need more than luck to face what was coming... Decades later, the town of Widdershins is under attack, but before Henry's equally bold granddaughter Harriet Barber can save it, she needs to know what she's fighting. Can his tale from the past help her to save the future?"

Plot Summary
The book opens with a flashback to 1599, Elizabethan times. The Duke of Kent is executed and a powerful magical artefact is retrieved from his body. Queen Elizabeth orders Sir Francis Bacon to hide it somewhere safe, while guards discuss the Duke’s missing body.

Back in 1834, Sidney Malik is excited about meeting Harriet Barber’s extended family at a gathering Florence de Montfort has organised. On arriving at Florrie’s though, they are ushered into a carriage and sent to Harry’s brother Edmund Barber’s farm, along with Captain Nicola Barber.

Things between Nicola and Harry are tense (on account of Harry dramatically quitting the force) and Sid is glad to arrive at the farm, where he meets Harry’s extended family including in-laws and niblings. Harry is relieved her mother isn’t present though. Harry’s niece, Annie, accidentally upsets Nicola by repeating something her grandmother says, so Harry goes to comfort her. Nicola reveals she has broken up with her long-term girlfriend, Polly. Harry and Nicola agree if they get through whatever danger is coming up, they’ll consider repairing their relationship.

The adults discuss how many strange run ins with the Deadly Sins the family has had recently. Harry’s grandparents, the famous bounty hunter Henry Barber and his wife/assistant Izzy Holt (now Barber) show up and promise to explain by telling the story of how they first met, and the start of all of this.

In a flashback to 1782, a young Henry Barber decides to prove himself to his fellow hunters by taking on an extremely dangerous job posted by a mysterious Mr Luxuria. He meets Mr Luxuria and his lackeys all using the names of the Seven Deadly Sins as aliases. After some flirting, Mr Luxuria reveals he wants to hire Henry to retrieve The Liar’s Heart, a magical amulet, and I. Holt, the wizard who knows about it. Henry refuses to kidnap anyway, so Mr Luxuria orders Ms Superbia to rough him up. Henry escapes, and goes in search of Holt.

I Holt turns out to be Izzy Holt, the gardener at a big house. She takes Henry to her caravan and explains because of being a woman from a Romani background she was rejected by the university, but is a self-taught wizard. She’s been self-publishing her papers on the Liar’s Heart, but hopes to be accepted properly one day.

When Henry tells her about Mr Luxuria, she realises he is the same ‘Duke of Kent’ who was executed in 1599 and possessed the same amulet Mr Luxuria is seeking now. She explains the amulet has been seen throughout history all over the world held by people in influential positions. She thinks it was hidden by Sir Francis Bacon on an island off the coast of Cornwall, but can’t afford to make the trip to find it yet. Henry agrees to finance the trip, and starts to ask why Mr Luxuria wanted Izzy herself, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Ms Superbia, Ms Invidia, and Mr Avarita.

Luxuria’s lackeys hitch a horse to Izzy’s carvan and try to take it with Henry and Izzy inside, tying them up, but Izzy is able to convince them to let her secure the interior for the journey. She talks to Ms Superbia and Ms Invidia and discovers they are former French nobles who Mr Luxuria helped escape the revolution in return for their service. She tries to convince them not to work with him, but Ms Invidia is determined to restore her former status. As they talk, Henry is able to get free of his restraints and together he and Izzy are able to remove everyone from the caravan.

They travel to Henry’s friend, Victor Cunningham’s house, who is revealed to be the grandfather of Verity Cunningham. He’s a wizard/engineer and with the promise of borrowing some of Izzy’s rare books is persuaded to lend them his experimental flying boat called The Sailfin.

As The Sailfin takes them to Cornwall, Henry and Izzy have a romantic picnic, where Henry reveals he’s actually the son of the Baron of Widdershins, but he hated the life so much he left and forged his own path as a hunter. He tries to convince Izzy that she shouldn’t care what the university thinks of her, but she explains she feels she needs to play by their rules to get her paper published and her mother’s family name redeemed for what her Witch ancestor did.

In the present, everyone is shocked because Witches aren’t thought to exist, but they are thought to be like evil, stronger wizards from fairy tales. Izzy explains 400 years ago her ancestor was the Witch of Widdershins. She made a deal with Lust for unknown reasons, and agreed to give it a body. This meant it was no longer bound by summons and immediately escaped. It imbued an amulet with some of it’s magic to allow it to change appearance at will, and the Witch pursued it for the rest of her days. Unable to catch it, she passed on the secrets of the binding spell to her descendants who continued to chase it. When it was executed in 1599 the amulet and Luxuria seemed to disappear, but Izzy still knows the spell in case it was ever needed. The bloodline of the original summoner must be present for it to work. Her and Henry agree they must recover the amulet and bind Lust for good.

Ms Acedia teleports herself, Mr Gula, and Ms Ira to Cornwall just in time to see The Sailfin arrive overhead. Ms Ira shoots it down, and they land in water, able to continue sailing towards the island. They are followed by Luxuria’s lackeys, but need to investigate the lighthouse they suspect the amulet is in. Henry shuts off the light to slow down the following boat and buy them more time. Izzy finds and solves a cipher that leads them to a key, which opens the safe containing the amulet. They use it to mess around turning into each other and flirting, before heading upstairs to fix the lighthouse through the power of making out.

Luxuria’s lackeys arrive downstairs and threaten to burn down the lighthouse if Izzy doesn’t give herself up. Henry takes the amulet, disguises himself as Izzy, then lets them take him. Ms Ira burns down the lighthouse anyway, with the real Izzy still inside, but as they sail away Henry sees a glow of magic and knows she has escaped.

Back in the Hotel Gula, Mr Luxuria invites all of his lackeys to the Anchor, where he chains up ‘Izzy’ and gives everyone else champagne. Ms Superbia secretly gives ‘Izzy’ the key to escape the handcuffs. Everyone who drank the champagne passes out, and Luxuria reveals he knows it’s Henry, not Izzy he’s got. As Luxuria moves the unconscious people into position and draws a summoning circle around them all, he taunts Henry for falling in love with Izzy. He talks about the weakness of humans having too many emotions, and how it leads them into danger. He then summons the other Deadly Sins and proposes to them that together they take the Anchor and influence everyone in the city to make themselves stronger.

Before he can take the final part of his power back from the amulet, Izzy, who has secretly been drawing the binding circle below in the anchor, starts the spell. She binds the other Deadlies, but has to do Lust last because it’s the oldest. Luxuria tries to break the circle, but Henry transforms into Ms Superbia to stop him. Luxuria snatches back the amulet and reabsorbs the power before throwing Henry over the ledge into the Anchor. Henry manages to survive the fall, but Lust escapes and disappears. Henry and Izzy never saw most of the human victims again, but remained lifelong friends with Ms Superbia and Ms Invidia.

Back in the present, everyone tries to work out why the sins have suddenly started getting loose after all this time. They realise a new Witch must have come to Widdershins, and by comparing the timelines to her notes Nicola realises it’s Jack O’Malley. Izzy decides she needs to go to Mal and get him to do the binding because as the Witch it will be much stronger than anyone else doing it, but a member of her bloodline will still need to be there. Nora hands over the phone Alexa left, saying she feels this is what she was given it for. Together everyone works out they have enough artefacts touched by the Sins to be able to complete the binding.

With the plans made, Nicola, Harry, Sid, Henry, and Izzy prepare to depart for Widdershins, however as Henry and Izzy get into a carriage to drive away, they are met by an older Ms Acedia pointing a gun at them.

Characters

 * Mr Luxuria
 * Harriet Barber
 * Sidney Malik
 * Henry Barber
 * Isabelle Holt
 * Ms Superbia / Tilde
 * Ms Invidia / Elodie Valois
 * Ms Acedia

Minor Characters / Cameos

 * Queen Elizabeth I
 * Frank (guy in the booth at the Hunter's society)
 * Gren
 * Florence de Montfort
 * Nicola Barber
 * Catherine Barber
 * Edmund Barber
 * June Barber
 * Ann Barber
 * Nora Fenton
 * Geoff Fenton
 * Cassandra Fenton
 * The Butler / Mr Gula
 * Ms Ira
 * Mr Avaritia
 * Victor Cunningham
 * Envy
 * Sloth
 * Pride
 * Greed
 * Gluttony
 * Wrath

Locations

 * The Tower of London
 * Eddie's Farm
 * Royal Society of Hunters
 * Hotel Gula
 * Izzy's caravan
 * Victor Cunningham's estate
 * Sir Francis Bacon's island (Cornwall)
 * The Widdershins Anchor

Website
The website bonus content for Find the Lady was:


 * Strange Brew - a 15-page fancomic by E. Baird (creator of Altered Frontier) about Harry and Sid on a case
 * 3 pages of character Q&As
 * Horticultural Heresry - a 2-page fancomic by Moon Cabal (creator of Astral Aves) about Nicola solving a case.

Book
The print and PDF releases included 5 pages of character Q&As from Kickstarter backers, a copy of the Barber family tree, and an 11-page comic 'R.S.V.P.' written by Kate and illustrated by Taylor Robin (the creator of Never Satisfied) about Henry and Izzy's wedding. It follows Victor, Elodie, and Tilde trying to save the wedding from a bomb threat without ruining the big day. There are cameos from Never Satisfied characters in the background.

Release
The Kickstarter for Find the Lady ran from July 29th 2016 - August 28th 2016 and £14326 was pledged by 563 backers. The rewards included a pin badge of Gren and a mini-print poster.

Easter Eggs / Trivia

 * The book June is reading is called 'Castle Waiting' which is a real comic.
 * Envy has a less fox-like design as it hasn't yet met Voss and taken the fox form to mock him.