Linda Randall

Spoiler-heavy. Linda's place in the book includes a death that happens off-page between her two scenes; if you haven't read past chapter fifteen, save this page.

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In a sentence

A former Velvet Room call girl turned private chauffeur, friend and sometimes-lover of Jennifer Stanton, and the witness who slips Harry one usable lead before being killed by the same storm-fed working that opened the book.

Who she is in the story

Linda used to work for Bianca. She left the Velvet Room and is now driving a Town Car for the Beckitts — the wealthy couple who patronize Victor Sells's ThreeEye operation, though Harry will not learn that connection until later. She and Jennifer Stanton remained close, and Bianca's parting suggestion to Harry in chapter nine is to talk to Linda.

Harry tracks her to her apartment in chapter ten and finds a woman who is willing to talk in a wary, sardonic register but unwilling to give him the names she clearly has. She tells him to come back tomorrow. She promises to think about whether she'll call him. She is dead by chapter fifteen — killed in her bed by the same heart-bursting sex-magic working that killed Tommy and Jennifer at the Madison, in a scene the book shows Harry the aftermath of rather than the act.

The character is short — two scenes total — and the second is a body. The first scene is the one that does the work. Linda is the book's clearest example of a woman the wizard PI cannot quite save in time, and the chapter does not pretend that Harry's later guilt about that fixes anything.

What she's like

World-weary and sardonic. Streetwise and unflinching. She keeps her cards close and answers questions with dry, razor-edged humor; she reads Harry quickly and refuses to be intimidated by him or to be condescended to. She smokes, moves with guarded economy, and lets silence work as hard as her words. Her vibe is cool, tough, and very tired — loyal to her own people, hostile to anyone who shows up asking her to make trouble for them. Harry likes her almost immediately, which is part of why her death lands the way it does.

What she wants

To stay out of it. She has already gotten out of Bianca's world once; she does not want back in. She liked Jennifer and would like Jennifer's killer found; she would also like very much not to be the next body. The bargain she is trying to make with herself across chapter ten is whether she can give Harry enough to be useful without giving him enough to be implicated. She does not finish making it.

What she fears / hides

That she knows who is doing this. Or at least, that she knows enough to guess. The Beckitts employ her. The Beckitts run with Victor. Jennifer was talking to Linda about Monica's situation. The book lets you piece this together after the fact; in the moment, you only get Linda's evasion and her promise to think about calling Harry tomorrow.

Key relationships

• Jennifer Stanton — close friend and on-and-off lover. The loss is recent and the grief is the shape underneath everything Linda says in chapter ten.
• Bianca — former employer. They left on good enough terms that Bianca sends Harry her way. The book lets that good-enough-terms feel real without making it sentimental.
• The Beckitts — current employer. She is their driver. She also knows what they are.
• Harry Dresden — the wizard at her door in chapter ten. Wary, combative rapport. She agrees to "think about" calling. She doesn't get the chance.

What she looks like

Late twenties, medium build, dark-honey hair past the shoulders and slightly mussed. Pale skin with the faint shadow under the eyes that long shifts and cigarettes put there. Gray-blue eyes, half-lidded and knowing. A thin sardonic half-smile.

The scene is at home off-duty: dark fitted tank, soft black drawstring trousers, a worn cardigan pulled half off one shoulder. The chauffeur kit is visible nearby — a navy jacket with brass buttons and a peaked cap tossed atop the folded jacket on a chair, a black Town Car key fob on the side table, a pager clipped near the chair arm. A lit cigarette between two fingers, smoke curling. A glass of bourbon. An off-the-hook landline receiver, cord dangling. Bars of indigo-violet neon stripe through the venetian blinds behind her.

For your book club

• Linda dies between chapters. The book shows you her body, not the killing. Does that restraint protect the dignity of the character or evade her?
• She is one of three women in the book killed by a working that uses intimacy as its battery. Each death is structured slightly differently. What is Storm Front doing with the pattern?
• Harry comes back to talk to her too late. The book lets that be a real failure. How does it differ from other "the detective is too late" beats you have read?
• Linda is on the page for two scenes total. Track every line she speaks in chapter ten and ask which lines do narrative work and which do character work. Does Butcher do both at once?

Aliases

The following names and references in the book all point to this character. Use any of these as link anchors back to this page.

• Linda Randall (canonical — the most common form)
• Miss Randall
• Linda
• Randall