Help me find a good location for a murder mystery!

September 8, 2021 8:31 AM

I'm working on a short story where the villain gets killed in a particular setting. I'm looking for a city/town which has a lot of well-to-do people living close to a road that runs along a cliff or escarpment. The bad guy ends up accidentally, on purpose, falling to his death while on a walk from his house. Anywhere in U.S. or Canada would do but I'm also open to European locales too.
posted by storybored to Writing & Language (31 answers total)

Maybe Newport, RI and its Cliff Walk?
posted by DiscountDeity at 8:35 AM on September 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

Newport, Rhode Island, has a bunch of mansions that back up to the Cliff Walk.
posted by msbrauer at 8:36 AM on September 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Along Ocean Avenue, north Santa Monica, approaching Pacific Palisades, a strip of park along the bluffs above PCH... but there's a (low) fence. Also LA, I'm sure there's places in Palos Verdes, but I don't know that area so well. (You do, however -- it's where they played 'chicken' in "Rebel Without A Cause." Many more houses up there nowadays.)
posted by Rash at 8:44 AM on September 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also came to say Newport.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:51 AM on September 8, 2021

I've only been to LA once, briefly, and I've never even seen them in person, but the sheer amount of tv/movies/books I've consumed set in LA made me immediately want to place this in the cool cantilever houses in the LA hills.
posted by phunniemee at 8:55 AM on September 8, 2021

I've always thought Sea Ranch in northern California would be good for this. You can sit in one of the houses by the sea and see into the houses across the water because they all have huge windows. Usually a good number of them are empty because they are vacation/weekend places. It's also not far from Hitchcock's California-- some times of year it can be real creepy looking. Sea Ranch is such a brand though, someone would likely come after you if you used the actual name.
posted by BibiRose at 8:56 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Here's your option in Calgary, AB. The bluff is not a cliff, but if you had enough momentum, it'd be bad news. Fair number of people walking around though.
posted by Superilla at 9:08 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

There are SO many beautiful houses in LA that are built into cliffs like this. Check out Laurel Canyon.
posted by rue72 at 9:14 AM on September 8, 2021

Mendocino, CA where the ocean lies below a treacherous cliffside walk. Also, people free-dive for abalone there if you need an unusual way for someone to stumble upon evidence lying beneath the waves.
posted by carmicha at 9:17 AM on September 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Sunset Cliffs, San Diego has people fall off all the time.
The fancy houses are just on the other side of the constantly narrowing road.
posted by SLC Mom at 9:53 AM on September 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Sunset Cliffs, San Diego has people fall off all the time.

I was going to suggest this also. The cliffs at Sunset Cliffs are also fairly unstable, so sometimes people don't so much fall as the cliff falls into the ocean and takes people with it.

People also get stuck/fall/die on the cliffs above Blacks Beach north of La Jolla all the time.
posted by LionIndex at 10:00 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Along the same lines as SLC Mom: consider Del Mar. Lovely ocean views from deadly cliffs. Or perhaps check out La Jolla, in particular Raymond Chandler's house.
posted by SPrintF at 10:01 AM on September 8, 2021

Along the Niagara Escarpment in Southwestern Ontario (near Toronto). It's essentially a giant cliff that runs from upstate New York all the way to Tobermory that was carved by glaciers (if I recall correctly). Burlington, ON is home to both many $5,000,000+ homes and many beautiful hiking trails that run along the edge of the Escarpment.
There's a lot of shale, which looks like regular rock but can be super porous and crumbly, almost more like chalk. Definitely a major risk to people who are casual walkers or hikers, and very easy for someone to plausibly fall "by accident".
posted by dotparker at 10:08 AM on September 8, 2021

There are places along the Oregon Coast or the Columbia Gorge where this is doable, too, but the expensive homes tend to be a bit more spread out rather than clustered in a neighborhood... so if you need a more isolated or remote setting that is still close to communities and within reasonable driving distance of a big city, it'd work, especially the gorge, with it's "bedroom community of Portland" thing. That also makes almost any sort of money source realistic.
posted by stormyteal at 10:44 AM on September 8, 2021

Ithaca, NY, north of campus. Either the Stewart Ave. road bridge over Fall Creek Gorge just above Ithaca Falls, or (sneakier) the pedestrian's suspension bridge that bridges the gorge a bit further upstream to connect Fall Creek Drive with Central Ave. Your well-to-do area being Cayuga Heights north of campus (aka the "faculty ghetto", as someone once called it while I was listening).
posted by Namlit at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

How the and Dalkey both outside of Dublin are full of well to do folks and cliff paths.
posted by J.R. Hartley at 11:03 AM on September 8, 2021

The Ithaca NY areas mentioned currently have nets beneath to catch jumpers, but a lot of areas such as the Cascadilla Gorge Trail (a common walk to campus) would still qualify.
posted by tchemgrrl at 11:32 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Tiburon, CA?

Or definitely Newport, RI: periodically someone climbs over the railings, falls, and gets badly hurt if they're lucky on the wet rocks below.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:35 AM on September 8, 2021

Pali Lookout The winds at this site are unforgettable. It seems that if you fell from the Lookout, the wind would be a significant element of the experience into the downward spiral. I just watched "White Lotus" which covered a lot of the strange dynamics that are a part of Hawaii's social environment; also, lots of miserable rich people.
posted by effluvia at 11:43 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Presidio?
posted by mmascolino at 11:55 AM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Aspen, Telluride, Estes Park, or Winter Park, CO
posted by nickggully at 12:13 PM on September 8, 2021

I was thinking that also, mmascolino - not specifically the Presidio but on the west side of it; or further, Lands End to the west-southwest, those Seal Rocks and Sutro Bath ruins overlooks. But that latter area, around Cliff House, isn't residential.
posted by Rash at 12:17 PM on September 8, 2021

To expand on tchemgrrl's specifics (+ thanks for the corrections. It's been a while...), Ithaca's Cascadilla Park Road, which climbs steeply along the north edge of Cascadilla Gorge, is lined with a number of homes that would qualify as well-to-do, and if you, about two thirds between where it begins in the valley and Stewart Ave, step, like, five steps to the right, you tip right over the edge of the cliff before you even know it.
posted by Namlit at 1:24 PM on September 8, 2021

East Chop, Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, MA. There are a few very big houses up on the top of the bluff, a road, and as best as I remember, no sidewalk and a steep drop down to the water.

In Ithaca, in addition to places mentioned there are several big houses in other places on the edge of gorge.
posted by mareli at 2:09 PM on September 8, 2021

Echo J.D.Hartley for Howth Cliff Walk [pic] N of Dublin.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:22 PM on September 8, 2021

Lots of spots along the California coastline sound like this. Someone died just this week at Mori Point in Pacifica by falling from the cliff. The Mendocino or Sonoma county coast (further north) is also a lot like this; look into Jenner and the towns north of it. Also: it's not at all uncommon for coastal cliffs to become enshrouded in fog, vastly reducing visibility.
posted by saramour at 2:40 PM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

For a spot along the California coastline, you might consider the Esalen Institute, which was really big during the Personal Growth movement of the sixties and seventies, and has more recently been adopted by the elite of Silicon Valley for retreats. I haven't been there for a number of years, but they had a glorious organic garden and hot tubs by moonlight right on the edge of the cliffs. Very niche culture of utopias and elites.

Also, not far away is the Henry Miller Memorial library where they have poetry readings by the likes of Patti Smith and other artists from the Santa Cruz area. The bathroom there has famously x rated decor that my roommate at the time insisted on seeing, and she got propositioned by the librarian. It was hilarious. Anyway, maybe interesting fodder for your story.
posted by effluvia at 6:30 PM on September 8, 2021

York, Maine also has a "cliff walk" but it might be a little tame unless your villain is very clumsy.

Maybe the Cascadilla Gorge Trail in Ithica? (edit, already suggested)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:58 PM on September 8, 2021

Eze, France Or Monaco perhaps; Greek Monasteries, those types of alternates perhaps?
posted by DrtyBlvd at 8:39 PM on September 8, 2021

West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA.
posted by gudrun at 7:45 PM on September 9, 2021

Any city or town alongside the Mississippi or other river? I’m geographically biased, but you could set it in Stillwater, MN—just make up a rich-people drive/road.
posted by pepper bird at 6:37 AM on September 10, 2021 [1 favorite]