History Characters / TheDresdenFilesOrdinaryPeopleAndBadassNormals

* WhatAnIdiot: Even though his older siblings all just died horribly, he's not even slightly suspicious of Ambre's sudden attraction to him.

* WhatAnIdiot: He made several stupid decisions, including his idea to support some drug dealers who weren't operating with Marcone's permission, and his attempt to beat down [[PintSizedPowerhouse Murphy]] in a fistfight goes just about as badly as you'd expect.

* WhatAnIdiot: He does a lot of stupid things, but his attempts to fight Murphy in "Last Call" after she clearly demonstrates how outmatched he is tops the list.

* EscortMission: Dresden tries to lead him away from Tessa and protect him until backup can arrive. [[spoiler: He fails]].

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: They were nothing but kind a caring to Maggie and showed no indication of ParentalFavoritism despite her being adopted. Then the Red Court kills them.

A mechanic who services Harry's car of choice, the Blue Beatle. After the Beatle is destroyed he continues to service other vehicles Harry drives in.

* PrivateDetective: His job. He appears to be rather expert at it, and turns out to be the guy Harry reaches out to when he needs information on gangs in the mundane side of things. In his case, it hasn't lead to much in the way of success, as he's more broke than even Harry is.

* EvilIsPetty: After Meditrina Bassarid is rude to Decker, Decker decides to get revenge on her by directing her to meet Herbert Caine, a convicted rapist, on the basis that Caine has a magic item Bassarid needs for her ritual. Fortunately, Bassarid is much more powerful than Caine and winds up terrorizing him instead of the other way around.

* TooDumbToLive: Somehow he doesn't seem to realize mouthing off to a police officer (who could put him away for a long time for illegal goods and fraud) and a ''White Council Warden'' (who have the authority to '''cut his head off''') simultaneously is not a good idea. Had it been anyone else than Murphy and Harry, say RabidCop Greene and / or Warden Morgan, he would have been finished.

* TheReveal: She knew all along magical creatures were involved with the trial.

A retired law professor who takes the occasional case.

* {{Meganekko}}: She has glasses and is drawn in a cute manner. She's also quite brainy.

* AdultFear: She gets pinned down with one hand by her daughter's kidnapper, while he chokes out Molly with the other hand via SuperStrength. A helpless Charity is near tears being ForcedToWatch, and it's heartbreaking. Fortunately, Harry had a plan.
** Most of ''Proven Guilty'' is one for her, honestly, as she sees her daughter run away from home and fall in with a bad crowd, to the point where she basically gets the magical equivalent to a violent drug addiction (read: performing BlackMagic), and almost gets killed ''twice'' (the second time solely through the petty jealousies of an {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}.
** In ''Skin Game'', Nicodemus and Tessa drag her out of her house so she can be ForcedToWatch as her children are all burned alive.

* SinsOfTheFathers: His jerkassery led to a bloodline curse on his family.

* BigBrotherInstinct: While Joseph cerainly wants to survive himself but he cares deeply about the safety of his brothers and sisters as well, putting his efforts into trying to save them too.

!Yardley Family
[[folder: Megan Yardley]]

!Private detectives

[[folder: Vince Graver]]
!!Vince Graver

A Private Investigator who was hired to spy on Harry during the ''Turn Coat'' case. Dresden managed to get him on his side, and Graver was able to obtain key evidence in proving that Samuel Peabody was a spy on the White Council.

* CouldSayItBut: When Molly pulls an IHaveBoobsYouMustObey tactic on him, he still refuses to divulge the details of his client... but he does mention one specific lawyer at one specific firm who might be able to help her find a job if her apprenticeship with Harry falls through. The lawyer, of course, is the client.
* MundaneSolution:
** Harry knows Binder will be looking to block any mystical means of tracking and takes all the precautions (shaving his head and jumping into a river ect), so Harry hires Vince to just follow the guy after he does this.
** Harry outs Peabody by simply having Graver watch the one entrance from Edinburgh to Chicago via the Nevernever and take photos of everyone who comes through.
* PrivateDetective: His job, though more of a mundane one. Rather realistically, his job is more of an intelligence gatherer, as his [=MO=] is utilizing a high-power camera and a bit of breaking and entering.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: He is a man of integrity. Ironically, going independent lead to a degree of success.
** He was once a cop from a district outside of Chicago. When he looked into some prostitutes being beaten, despite orders to back off, he found a Chicago councilman was the culprit. And then he arrested the guy despite knowing the political consequences could ruin his career (which they did).
** When he learns his job in following Harry to get to the "Old Man" (Morgan) in ''Turn Coat'' has lead to fights and attempted murder, he drops the job then and there.
** At the same time, he refuses to give Harry any information on who hires him because of his integrity.
* TurnInYourBadge: He does this rather than be relocated to Murphy's division of the Chicago PD.

[[folder: Nick Christian]]
!!Nick Christian
[[quoteright:125:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nick_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:125:A private investigator who has eked out a career of saving missing children.]]

A Private Investigator and one of Harry's mentors.

* TheAlcoholic: Implied to have more than a thing for whiskey.
* FriendToAllChildren: He takes a variety of jobs to pay rent, but his passion is missing children cases. He's managed to save several children from abductors over the years, and in his view, that makes all the sacrifices he's made worth it.
* GenericGraffiti: On his office door, there's a graffitied picture of a fat angel with a donut in one hand and a sawed-off shotgun in the other. Perhaps a mark of respect from the local gang.
* TheGhost: Besides a brief appearance which didn't even describe him in Harry's first appearance and inaugural short story, Christian was mentioned only in passing a few times over the course of the series. He finally appears, appropriately enough, in ''Ghost Story''.
* TheMentor: To Harry, when he started out as a detective.
* PerpetualPoverty: He lives out of his "office", which is little more than a cubby hole in the side of a building, closed off by a garage door, in a bad part of town.
* PrivateDetective: His job. He appears to be rather expert at it, and turns out to be the guy Harry reaches out to when he needs information on gangs in the mundane side of things. In his case, it hasn't lead to much in the way of success, as he's more broke than even Harry is.

!Residents of Boone Mill, Missouri

For members of the Talbot family, see their entries under Talbot Family above on this page.

[[folder: Mayor Cynthia Cedar]]
!!Mayor Cynthia Cedar
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cedar_ghoulgoblin.png]]
[[caption-width-right:150:Her town. Her rules.]]

The mayor of Boone Mill, Cedar has been in elected office for many years. Much of her past, including what she did during her tenure as Deputy Ambassador to Egypt, is a closely guarded secret.

* BoldExplorer: When she first arrived in Egypt she hit all the major tourist sites. Then she started to go off the beaten track, to obscure and forgotten places only the locals remembered. This turned out to be a bad idea when she was attacked by mummies.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her adventures in Egypt, which culminated in her being attacked by mummies and saved by a qarin who became a fugitive as a result of the act. She returned to the states, left national politics under a cloud of scandal, and never told anyone what happened... until Dresden came to town.
* InterspeciesRomance: She is in love with a qarin, a jinn-like spirit, who saved her life in Egypt.
* ParentalSubstitute: Adopts J.J. and Ella after the curse is lifted and the other Talbot siblings are dead.
* PermanentElectedOfficial: She's been in office for over fifteen years and shows no sign of leaving anytime soon.
* PreSacrificeFinalGoodbye: Has one with the qarin when he's preparing to unleash his power against Ambre and Griswald, knowing this will allow his superiors to find him and take him away forever.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She understands what's going on in Boone Mill and supports Dresden in his efforts to fight the curse, even springing him from jail after Dagget imprisons him.
* UltimateAuthorityMayor: She seems to have total power in Boone Mill, and is even able to force Dagget to release Dresden, a suspect in multiple homicides.

[[folder: Sheriff Dagget]]
!!Sheriff Dagget
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dagget_ghoulgoblin.png]]
[[caption-width-right:150:Try not to get arrested on his turf.]]

Head of law enforcement in Boone Mill.

* BadBoss: Openly mocks Tremaine's ambitions to rise higher in law enforcement, and punishes him for actually trying to solve the mysterious deaths happening around town instead of just writing them off as tragic accidents.
* CorruptHick: He openly states to Tremaine that his main goal is pleasing Joseph Talbot, the richest man in town.
* PoliceAreUseless: Well he is, anyways. He contributes nothing to the battles against Griswald and Ambre, and even arrests Dresden (the only person in town with a chance of driving the monsters away) under suspicion of having committed some of their murders himself.
* TheSheriff: His job.
* WeirdnessCensor: An industrial-strength one. No matter how many mysterious and inexplicable accidents occur in Boone Mill, he refuses to accept that anything weird is happening, and instead attributes the earlier deaths to coincidence and the latter ones to Dresden.

[[folder: Deputy Sheriff Prescott "Pres" Tremaine]]
!!Deputy Sheriff Prescott "Pres" Tremaine
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tremaine_ghoulgoblin.png]]
[[caption-width-right:150:Prescott Tremaine, ready for war.]]

The junior member of law enforcement in Boone Mill, Prescott balances his time between his official duties, classes for professional advancement, and his girlfriend Ambre. He tries to get to the bottom of the Talbot deaths, only to learn that Ambre is much more involved than she seemed at first glance.

* BoyMeetsGhoul: Literally -- his girlfriend, Ambre, turns out to be an actual ghoul who was only dating him as a way to hang around town and get close to the Talbots without falling under suspicion.
* CarFu: He manages to badly injure Ambre by tricking her into jumping on the roof of a car that was filled with gasoline, then blowing up the car.
* TheCassandra: He consistently tells Dagget the truth about what's going on and how Dresden can help them stop it. Dagget consistently blows him off.
* TheCoroner: While not an official one, he's taking forensic pathology classes which help him to determine that Carl's wounds didn't come from a wild animal but from something inhuman.
* HyperCompetentSidekick: To Dagget. While the actual sheriff is useless, Tremaine helps to drive off Ambre and Griswald, and even distracts Ambre for most of the final fight entirely on his own while Dresden deals with Griswald.
* MoreDakka: For the final fight he outfits himself with a massive gun from Joseph's personal stash.
* NamesTheSame: Shares his names with side character Lt. Prescott "Scotty" Tremainie from ''Literature/HonorHarrington''.
* ParentalSubstitute: Becomes this, along with Cedar, to J.J. and Ella Talbot once the five older Talbot siblings are dead and the curse has been lifted.

!Residents of Norman, Oklahoma
[[folder:Dean]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2022_03_21_at_41700_pm.png]]

A campus security officer at the University of Oklahoma.

* AgentScully: While he hears Dresden out, he ultimately doesn't believe in Dresden's supernatural explanation for the chaos on campus.

!Residents of Taylor, Mississippi

[[folder:Bo Gentle]]
!!Bo Gentle
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_14_at_40417_pm.png]]


A deputy working on the Dog Man massacre case.

* BadassDriver: Having his '''''hand ripped off while driving''''' ''did not'' impede his driving skills.
* BadassNormal: One has to be to survive ''multiple'' encounters with ghouls.
* BackToBackBadasses: With Harry against a ''literal army'' of ghouls.
* GameBreakingInjury: As expected, Gentle cannot fightvas well as he used to after losing a hand.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: As mentioned above, he doesn't react to getting his hand ripped off at the wrist. Though as Harry notes he was probably in shock.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Offers to assist Dresden by showing him the evidence the police managed to collect.

[[folder:Bartender]]
!!Bartender
[[quoteright:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_07_12_at_52312_pm.png]]

A bartender working at The Three Pigs, a bar in Taylor.

* TheBartender: Her job.
* KnowledgeBroker: She provides Dresden with information on the local wolfmen, and also lets him know that the mysterious women who come into the bar looking to party have been there before.

** TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: They were nothing but kind a caring to Maggie and showed no indication of ParentalFavoritism despite her being adopted. Then the Red Court kills him.

** TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: They were nothing but kind a caring to Maggie and showedno indication of ParentalFavoritism despite her being adopted. Then the Red Court kills him.

* NervesofSteel: Fearless enough that the horror magic of the fetches couldn't hurt him too badly; they had to maul him physically to frighten him.

* ButterFace: Though he's handsome overall, it's noted that his face is slightly unattractive.

* PlainJane: Described as 'plain-faced'.

* StrawFeminist: Once Giselle is scarred and Emma comments that she won't be able to work in the porn industry anymore, Dresden makes a comment along the lines of 'could be worse.' He meant that Giselle could have died instead of just being scarred, but Emma interprets that to mean that she could still be in the porn industry instead of being forced out of it, and she lectures Dresden on not looking down on porn actresses.
* WorkingWithTheEx: Jake is her former boyfriend and father of her kids . . .

* BadassMoustache: Sports a thick, long one that runs all the way down to his chin.

* JustTheWayYouAre: How he prefers his performers. Since the White Court uses physchological conditioning via HollywoodBeautyStandards, Lord Raith was [[{{Understatement}} displeased]].

The chauffeur and live-in lover of Gregory and Helen Beckitt.

* HighClassCallGirl: First for Bianca, and then for the Beckitts.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lived a wilder life than her sister Monica.

* MassiveNumberedOffspring: She has seven children with her husband Michael.

* [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesHarrysHousehold Harry and Harry's Household]]