Curtain Call

Curtain Call is the seventh Widdershins book and the end of the Deadly Sins arc. It is also the longest book by quite a bit. It sees all the protagonists of the previous books teaming up to face off against every deadly sin in reverse order ending with Lust.

Blurb
The spirits of emotion that power Widdershins, England's most magical town, have been overtaken by the dark forces of the Seven Deadly Sins. The only ones who can save the place from itself are daring bounty hunter Harriet Barber, her friends, and Jack O'Malley: the town's uncertain, untrained, and utterly unwilling new guardian. They may have everything they need to save the day, but when you're fighting monsters of your own making, your own worst enemy may be yourself...

Plot Summary
At Eddie and Cat’s farm, Nicola Barber and Harriet Barber say goodbye to their family and head back to Widdershins with Sidney Malik and a pack of sandwiches. The same morning, Jack O’Malley is woken by the buggerups warning him to leave. Meanwhile, Ms Acedia takes Henry Barber and Izzy Holt to her basement, where she has prepared a summoning for Wrath. Now in Widdershins, Harry and Sid prepare for whatever may come next. They share a tender moment, but are interrupted by Nicola before they can go too far.

Ms Acedia shoots Henry, which is enough to release Wrath and it escapes. Mal and Benjamin Thackerey sense a magical disturbance just before Wrath bursts into the house and sets it on fire. From across town, Nicola, Sid, and Harry see the smoke and rush over. Harry enters the burning building and saves Mal, Ben, and Heinrich Wolfe from a remnant of Wrath. They escape the building, but not before Mal doubles back to save Wolfe’s violin.

Outside, everyone gets introduced, but Harry and Mal are immediately at each other’s throats as she calls him a Witch. He reluctantly leads the way towards where Wrath was summoned, but gets scared and runs away when he sees Acedia’s basement. Wolfe follows him, while Sid, Nicola and Harry go down to find Henry and Izzy. Izzy writes down the binding spell to give to Mal, and goes with Nicola to take Henry to a doctor.

Wolfe finds Mal sat on a hill planning his escape from the town. Wolfe says he’ll support him leaving, but will stay himself to help people. Mal explains he doesn’t want to be a Witch because they’re evil, but Wolfe says he believes in him, and together they can prove the stories are wrong.

Harry finds Verity Cunningham and lets her know Henry’s been shot, and Verity quickly agrees to help. Sid receives a map imbued with Curiosity showing the location of all the Sins across town. Mal reveals he can see a magpie-shaped buggerup following Sid around, which is the cause of his pickpocketing habit. Verity and Harry reach the others and Verity is thrilled to see ‘Benji’ her favourite cousin is there, to the amusement of everyone. Sid explains they need to desummon the Sins in reverse order, but first they need to go to the Anchor.

At the Anchor, a magical blue door appears for Mal. Wizards are unable to enter. Ben draws the summoning circles he needs and Harry brings the binding spell to read for Mal. Mal and Harry enter the door, and the others head off to deal with the Sins. Mr Luxuria watches unseen from a nearby café. In the Witch Space, Harry and Mal find a present containing a note from the Mountain Witch, a music box, and a blue scarf.

Wrath
Wolfe, Sid, Verity, and Ben go to the prison first where Wrath is encouraging angry people to riot at the doors. Ben and Verity start to succumb to wrath, but Wolfe is able to talk them out of it. They break into the prison and head to the control centre for the magical loudspeakers. On the way, Sid sees Lei in her cell. She asks for him to let her out to keep her safe, but he refuses. She hugs him, pickpocketing the keys without his notice, and is seen by Thomas Macavity in a nearby cell. Wolfe asks if Sid is still in love with Lei, and he explains he likes Harry now but is afraid to tell her. They reach the control room and Sid gets Wolfe to play his violin to calm to crowd outside.

In Witch Space, Mal copies Ben’s design to draw a summoning circle for Wrath on the floor. Wolfe’s playing weakens Wrath’s power enough for it to be summoned by Harry reading the binding. Wrath taunts Harry about Henry being shot, and she gets angry, weakening Mal’s attempt at a binding, but she is able to overcome it. Mal manages to bind Wrath and it disappears, but Harry remains angry at herself for almost ruining things.

Characters

 * Nicola Barber
 * Harriet Barber
 * Sidney Malik
 * Jack O'Malley
 * Heinrich Wolfe
 * Benjamin Thackerey
 * Ms Acedia
 * Henry Barber
 * Isabelle Holt
 * Wrath
 * Verity Cunningham
 * Luxuria
 * Lei Feng
 * Thomas Macavity
 * Dominik Voss
 * Envy
 * Gluttony
 * Pride
 * Margery Fairbairn
 * Enid O'Malley
 * Sloth
 * Greed

Cameos / Short Appearances

 * Florence de Montfort
 * Nora Fenton
 * Edmund Barber
 * June Barber
 * Annie Barber
 * Cassandra Barber
 * Catherine Barber
 * The Purple Hippo of Happiness
 * Frank
 * Spot
 * Mayor Robert Hackett (possibly in the audience at the Royal Theatre?)
 * Alexa King
 * The Butler / Mr Gula
 * Rosie Bell

Locations

 * Eddie's farm
 * Offices for the Removal of Dangerous Malforms
 * Acedia's Lair (Finch Street)
 * H Barber Office
 * Widdershins Anchor
 * Witch Space
 * Gibbet Street
 * The Royal Theatre
 * The Hotel Gula
 * The University of Widdershins
 * Lamplight Factory
 * Widdershins Bank
 * The Island Anchor

Website
The bonus content for the website after Curtain Call was:


 * 6 pages of character Q&As - this included a 1 page comic about how Mal got his nickname and a 1 page body-swap comic.
 * 11 pages of guest art - including 3 1-page comics, and a replica of Alexa's apron.

Book
The print and PDF releases of Curtain Call included a 4-page illustrated 'Tourist's Guide to Widdershins' annotated by Sid. This includes an illustration of Swift's Apothecary and a map of the University and the Depths, helping set up for Hangman's Knot.

Release
The Kickstarter to fund the print release of Curtain Call ran from 20th July - 24th August 2018, and 590 backers pledged £20,658. The unique reward for this campaign was a double-sided acrylic keychain of Mal and Harry. It's super cute!

Easter Eggs / Trivia

 * The speech bubble reading "We're definitely not doing the right thing, but it's too late now" belongs to William Sharpe, referencing his mind control work with Dr Flack.
 * Some of the background staff from Piece of Cake also appear in Curtain Call at Hotel Gula.
 * A Fourth Anchor Society poster is outside Acedia's lair.
 * Acedia found out Mal was back in Widdershins through the same malform removal advert that Voss used to find Wolfe. The same newspaper page is visible pinned to the wall in her lair, with the section that would have Mal's name in circled. Harry can be seen examining it later on, meaning she knew there was a connection between Mal and Acedia before the Sloth flashback.
 * Wolfe passes a pub called 'The Anchor and Door'. Although Widdershin's hasn't had a Witch in so long nobody knows about the door until Mal unlocks it later this book, it's a cool detail showing the history of the town.
 * When Verity first appears in this book, the page has a lot of purple tones and she is in front of a mirror, foreshadowing how Pride is the sin that she has the most trouble with.
 * Several police officers that appear in this book also appear in other books. For example, the man Verity fights in the corridor is the same man Knotty drugs in Hangman's Knot. Poor guy can't get a break I guess.
 * The colour palette changes by scene depending on which Deadly the gang is dealing with next. This is most obvious in the page transitioning between Wrath (red) and Envy (green), or if you zoom out on the website archive.
 * Mayor Hackett can be seen in the audience at the Royal Theatre.
 * The podcast Alexa listens to about Gladys and Edie Shaw is the same one Eliza does in the Modern AU.