Natalie Lindstrom

Natalie Lindstrom is the primary protagonist of a supernatural alternate-history detective series by Stephen Woodworth. A "Violet" with the North American Afterlife Communications Corps, she is one of a small percentage of the population born with purple irises and the ability to channel the dead, thereby allowing murder victims to testify against their killers.

Natalie is a "gaunt, pale young woman with a shaved head" and "twenty contact points tattooed on her scalp as a constellation of tiny bluish spots." These contact points correspond to the wires of a device called a SoulScan which monitors the presence of foreign spirits in the mind of a Violet; the device is also outfitted with a red Panic Button that emits a powerful electrical burst capable of evicting hostile spirits from a hijacked conduit. In public, Natalie wears an assortment of wigs and blue contact lenses to hide her identity.

Before going to work for the NAACC, Natalie was trained from the age of five at the Iris Semple Conduit Academy in New Hampshire by the renowned Arthur McCord, a Violet involved in the investigations of Ted Bundy and the Hillside Strangler. By the time of Through Violet Eyes, Arthur has been in hiding for seven years (having, apparently, deserted the Academy after Natalie graduated), masquerading as a Violet-impersonating "medium" in Hollywood, and protecting himself from the bombardment of spirits by taking cover in a Faraday cage-style building. Natalie continues to maintain secretive contact with her former teacher.

At the age of nine, Natalie dislocated her shoulder during a soccer match; at twelve, she had her head shaved like Abdullah Kobayashi and tattooed like Jun Kasai by School specialist Dr. Krell. When she was 17, her boyfriend left the School to go to work at Quantico, and insisted that she do everything necessary to avoid the same fate even if assigned. Natalie's mother, Nora Lindstrom, was also a Violet who was ultimately driven insane by the onslaught of spirits; she was institutionalized while Natalie was still a teenager.

"Through Violet Eyes"

The Lindstrom family tree

In the year prior to Through Violet Eyes, Natalie dated a fellow Violet named Evan Markham, who had in turn worked with FBI Special Agent Daniel Atwater on the "Philly Ripper" case. After Natalie's relationship with Evan ended, Evan began dating another fellow Violet named Sondra Avebury. Natalie also successfully worked the "Aqueduct Killer" case in the interim.

Natalie is introduced during the murder trial of Hector Muñoz, channeling the defendant's slain wife Rosa Muñoz. Soon after, she is approached by Agent Atwater and recruited into the investigation of a "Faceless Man" targeting Violets; the victims include Jeremy "Jem" Whitman, Gig Marshall, Avebury, Markham, Russell Travers, Sylvia Perez, and Laurie Gannon. Natalie joins Atwater, Special Agent in Charge Earl Clark, and LAPD Detective Yolena Garcia to track the serial killer.

In the course of their investigation, Natalie and Atwater locate a bomb planted in the basement of the Iris Semple Conduit Academy, presumably by the same individual murdering Violets across the country. They are called back to California shortly after Arthur McCord is murdered in his Vine Street storefront. Natalie is temporarily reassigned to the protective detail of Corps Security Agents Lipinski and Brace, but rejoins Atwater on the Faceless Man investigation following the murder of her former Arts Division teacher Lucinda Kamei.

While Atwater interrogates New York Post reporter Sid Preston, Natalie's body is hijacked by a rogue soul that knows her defensive mantra. She is forced to go to an abandoned building and delivered to the Faceless Man, and only narrowly rescued by Serena Mfume, protégé of the religious cult mentored by Arthur McCord's brother, Simon McCord. Mfume joins the investigation, and Natalie soon discovers that Evan Markham is actually still alive.

Natalie, Atwater and Mfume determine that Sondra Avebury impersonated Evan during Russell Travers' deposition. By converting a closet at LAPD headquarters into a make-shift Faraday-cage, they trap Avebury, who claims that she helped Evan fake his death in order for Evan to find her killer, summon her, and allow her to kill the Faceless Man herself.

Natalie remains in San Francisco while Atwater travels to Seattle to apprehend Clement Everett Maddox, whose obsession with Violets makes him a prime suspect. Maddox is conducting his own research, attempting to use Violet souls by stealing touchstones from each of the murder victims to amplify electronic voice phenomenon in an attempt to contact his dead wife Amy.

Clement is shot while fleeing, but Atwater has misgivings about the arrest. On the flight home, he and Mfume discover that Evan Markham is, in fact, the Faceless Man while Sondra Avebury is the rogue soul enabling Markham to kill his victims with a minimum of struggle; together, the two of them slowly developed the "Violet Killer" modus operandi by appropriating details of famous serial killers (Jack the Ripper's ritual disembowlment, the Zodiac Killer's letters to the media; Jeffrey Dahmer's collection of body parts).

Before Atwater can warn Natalie, she is kidnapped from her motel by Markham and driven to a remote location where Evan explains that he and Sondra have been killing Violets to spare their victims from the onslaught of disturbed spirits. Natalie manages to manipulate Evan into nearly releasing her; her escape fails, however, when Sondra takes over Evan's body. Sondra's attempt to kill Natalie is also interrupted when Mfume draws her out of Evan and into the Faraday cell at LAPD.

Using a SoulScan, Atwater ejects Sondra from Serena and releases Mfume, but Avebury commandeers Mfume's body again, using her to murder Atwater. Mfume manages to confine Sondra to the Faraday cell, while Atwater's soul confronts the soul of Alan Pelletier, the innocent man he accidentally killed years before. After reconciling with Pelletier, Atwater manages to find Natalie and occupy her body before skipping from her to Markham and stopping Evan from killing Natalie.

Natalie binds Markham before he can force Atwater's soul out of his body, then leaves Evan in the van; Markham is later arrested and sentenced to life in prison on suicide watch. Several months later, Natalie travels to Washington D.C. to tender her retirement from the NAACC to Delbert Sinclair. She then announces her pregnancy with Atwater's child to Mfume, asking Serena to act as the child's godmother.

"With Red Hands"

"In Golden Blood"

"From Black Rooms"

External links

• the Official Violet Eyes Site