Turnball Root is Julius Root's infamous older brother. In The Artemis Fowl Files, he is shown to be a criminal and former captain of the Lower Elements Police. He attempted to flood a part of Haven City to kill a competitor and escaped (disgraced) that time from the grasps of his brother. An honest man with noble intentions; his methods of conduct are rather different, hence he appears a villain to most people. Deep down, he is not.
He attempted to ambush Julius during Holly Short's initiation and force him into a human dwelling to take away his magical powers. In the plot, his two minions were Unix, a de-winged Sprite Turnball had saved from a nearly fatal incident with a troll, Ching Mayle, a goblin, and Bobb, a dwarf. Although he had carefully planned the ambush, Turnball was outwitted and arrested. He is most likely still in jail during the course of the series.
He is the primary antagonist in the book The Atlantis Complex, where he wants to restore youth to his aging human wife, Leonor Carsby, who he loves very much. He breaks out of prison, wrecks one of Foaly's probes by turning against the LEP, and subsequently attacking Atlantis to retrieve Number One to fulfil his aim.
Turnball captures Mulch, Juliet and Domovoi Butler, Foaly, Artemis, and Holly and burns a magical rune that makes Holly and Artemis his slaves on their necks. However, Mulch breaks free of the amorphobots hold and Foaly sets the others free (though Artemis is unconscious from electric shock). They all go down in Turnballs shuttle through the umbilical, and are confronted by him and his minions, which incapacitate Butler and Juliet, and thinking the battle is won, are dispatched by Orion, who was freed from Artemis' phyque by the electric shock sustained earlier. Turnball, seeing his scheme is ruined beyond repair and after informing them his shuttle is rigged to blow in five minutes, goes to his wife and they both pilot the shuttle away. Their shuttles bomb explodes, resulting in Leonor and Turnball's deaths.