The Dresden Files/Characters/Chicago PD and FBI

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Collin Murphy

Murphy's dead father. Sends Harry back to the land of the living, and works for Uriel.

Karrin Murphy

"The law isn't perfect. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make it work."

Murphy looks like someone's favorite aunt. She's five feet even and has blond hair, blue eyes, and a cute nose. Unfortunately for the bad guys, she's a lot more dangerous than she looks; she's a cop with some serious martial arts skills and enough stubbornness and ingenuity to really inconvenience anyone who annoys her. When she was reassigned to the Special Investigations department, a political death sentence, she responded by taking the department and helping it to become a lot more effective. Since SI got all the cases involving, say, vampire attacks, trolls eating people, or the results of some other sort of magical mayhem, this meant her most effective step was probably hiring Harry.

"If I hear montage music playing, I'm cutting it short."

  • Fair Cop
  • Heroic BSOD: After Grave Peril, when a supernatural nasty pretending to be Harry mind raped her. It took her several books to get back on her feet--and kicking--again.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The tiny to Harry's huge.
  • Inspector Javert: Has shades of this in the first couple books, largely because Harry refuses to tell her pertinent information regarding supernatural cases out of a misguided need to "protect" her. She gets better, as soon as she gets info and some perspective on the limits of mortal law and weapons.
  • Knight in Sour Armor
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: In Changes:

False gods! Pretenders! Usurpers of truth! Destroyers of faith, of families, of lives, of children! For your crimes against the Mayans, against the peoples of the world, now will you answer! Your time has come! Face judgment Almighty!

  • Properly Paranoid
  • Supporting Leader: The leader of Justice League Chicago, in Ghost Story.
  • Survival Mantra / Madness Mantra: "I can't believe he's dead."
  • Took a Level in Badass: Not that she was weak to begin with, but Changes takes things to a whole new level once she agrees to 'borrow' Fidelacchius, and amongst other things, proceeds to One-Hit Kill a Physical God.
    • In the six months between Changes and Ghost Story, she formed and headed an underground alliance of Chicago's lesser magically-talented individuals, and managed to kill two warlocks who were at Council-level strength, as well as lesser talents under Fomor command. For an ordinary human with no magic, that's a big deal.
  • Tsundere: Type A, usually towards Harry, but implied to be part of her interactions with Kincaid as well. We just don't see enough to really know in that case.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Harry. In Changes, they were going to resolve it, but Harry caught a bad case of sniper.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: considering the amount of snarkery that she exchanges with Harry, dear God yes. It helps that they've saved each other's lives plenty of times.
  • Waif Fu: realistic version--Murphy is tiny compared to the things she ends up fighting.
  • The Watson: Harry frequently ends up expositing, usually about magic, to her. "Egad, Holmes."
  • Weak but Skilled: In Aftermath, she uses tactics and brains to do what Harry would have done with brute force.
  • Weapon of Choice: For serious encounters Murphy packs her P90 submachinegun, which is tiny, but fierce, like herself.

Agent Denton

A no-nonsense FBI agent from Fool Moon and also the Big Bad of the book. He's obsessed with maintaining law and order at any cost, even to the extent of becoming a werewolf (specifically, Hexenwulf) to hunt down criminals who escaped justice. Gradually goes off the deep end.


Rudolph

A police officer in Special Investigations who ended up there for sleeping with the wrong councilman's daughter. Bears a grudge against Harry and the rest of SI, refusing to believe in the supernatural and sucking up to anyone who will get him out of SI. Eventually joins Internal Affairs.

  • Dirty Coward
  • Face Heel Turn: Rudolph is introduced in Fool Moon as a rookie justifiably scared by the loup-garou rampaging around in the next room. In Grave Peril, he gives Harry a If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... regarding Murphy. However, by the next book, he's tranferred to Internal Affairs and become the Rudolph we love to hate.
  • Hate Sink: If Jim Butcher said readers are supposed to like this guy, I would be thoroughly surprised.
  • Inspector Javert: This guy loves to try and screw up whatever Harry's case is in any way he can.
  • The Quisling: Indicated to be in the pocket of the Red Court in Changes.
  • The Resenter
  • Smug Snake: In Changes.

Detective John Stallings

Veteran detective with Special Investigations, Stallings is Murphy's second in command and one of the most respected men in the unit. When Murphy is demoted after the events of Proven Guilty, Stallings takes up the role as head of SI.

Special Agent Tilly

FBI agent working at the Chicago FBI office. Heads the investigation into the destruction of Harry's office building, but unlike a lot of government officials and police, he is willing to listen to Harry and pay attention to what's really going on.

  • Death Glare: He gives a really good one to Rudolph. Dresden describes it as being a glare that, when it's focused on you, you see a little bit of old man Death.
  • I Believe That You Believe It: Once Harry recognizes the below-mentioned gift, he outright tells Tilly that it was vampires that are responsible. Tilly just about mentions this trope by name, saying that while Harry is telling him what he believes to be the truth, that doesn't mean he's right about it.
  • Living Lie Detector: He says he's got a talent for always knowing when someone's telling the truth. Harry recognizes this as a minor magical gift.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure

Rawlins

Chicago police officer and former detective who has encountered the supernatural in the past, and thus is willing to believe the resident crazy wizard. Has a history with Murphy; apparently her father saved his life from a monster while he was on patrol long ago. Eventually is forced to join SI due to politics within the CPD, due to his issues with authority.

Carmichael

Murphy's original partner, killed by the loup-garou in Fool Moon. As of Ghost Story, he's now employed by Uriel.

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