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Karrin Murphy inherited her home from Grandma Murphy after she died.[1][2] It first appears in Summer Knight.

Description[]

In Summer Knight, Murphy's house is in a neighborhood called Bucktown. It's a tiny place surrounded by a neat littly lawn. Murphy owns it since her grandmother left it to her. The door was made of reinforced steel, like Harry Dresden's. The house has a strong threshold, since it has a life of its own with a history. It was a home not just a place to live. Inside, the living room is decorated in soft greens and yellows, and lots of ruffles on the curtains and the couch. There are beautiful old doilies everywhere that looked well cared for. Murphy's gun cleaning kit and holster were on the end's table and a pair of Japanese daisho[Footnote 1] is over the fireplace, a long katana[Footnote 2] and a short wakizashi.[Footnote 3][1][2]

In Dead Beat, it is described as a dinky little place, and resides in a neighborhood built before Edison's lights. Dresden describes it as really cute, with worn but well cared for Victorian furniture, and with lots of doilies decorating the place. Over the mantel was a pair of curved Japanese swords, the only Murphy-like concession to the decorating scheme.[2]

Dresden explains to Waldo Butters what a threshold is, and how Murphy's home has a strong one. A home has to have history, family, emotions worked into the wood. Murphy's clan had that home for better than a hundred years and lived in for every one of them. The threshold is solid and would keep out the Erlking.[3]

In Ghost Story, Murphy's house is a compact colonial, single story, square, solid and neat. There's flower garden with enough flowers for a much bigger house, also her grandmother's. Murphy upgraded it with vinyl siding, new windows, and modern insulation. It is a hundred years old and it looks like it could last another hundred years easily. The House has been heavily warded.[4]

In the series[]

Summer Knight[]

In Summer Knight, Dresden goes to Murphy's place to ask her help getting information to solve Mab's case (that the White Council pressured him into taking). Murphy makes Dresden cross the threshold to prove he's him and not an imposter demon like the one last year, Kravos, that disguised itself as Dresden, in Grave Peril.[1]

Murphy had been drinking and looking at wedding photos of her first marriage when she was age seventeen. Harry told her his story about Elaine Mallory to get Karrin to talk to him. An obituary page from the Tribune, says her first husband Gregory Taggart, died of cancer, and he never let her know he was sick. Plus, she's having night terrors about what Kravos did to her. There wasn't anything she could do to stop it and that's what scares her.[1]

Dead Beat[]

In Dead Beat, Karrin Murphy gave the keys to her apartment to Harry Dresden to water the plants while she went on vacation to Hawaii with Jared Kincaid.[5] Harry Dresden, Thomas Raith and Waldo Butters use her apartment as a refuge from necromancers.[2]

Small Favor[]

In Small Favor, Murphy's place is flooded with wardens: four in the living room, two in he kitchen, two outside under veils. Anastasia Luccio talks to Dresden about Ivy. She's worried that Dresden is too affectionate with her.[6]

Ghost Story[]

In Ghost Story, Dresden's ghost gets Mortimer Lindquist to Murphy's house to help him communicate with her. Dresden and Sir Stuart Winchester watch over a meeting of the Chicago Alliance.[7] Felicia Raith crosses Murphy's threshold without an invitation—which cripples her ability to draw on her Hunger.[8]

Notes[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Summer Knight, ch. 7
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Dead Beat, ch. 24
  3. Dead Beat, ch. 32
  4. Ghost Story, ch. 8
  5. Dead Beat, ch. 01
  6. Small Favor, ch. 46
  7. Ghost Story, ch. 08–11
  8. Ghost Story, ch. 9

See also[]

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