Fans of Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton’s iconic detective, often visit Santa Barbara, California, to try and spot the many settings included in her famous alphabet mysteries. They know that Grafton didn’t call Kinsey’s hometown by its real name, however. She called it Santa Teresa.
Why? Some say it was because one of her inspirations, Ross Macdonald, did the same thing. But I can think of another reason.
The setting for my Adam Parrall mysteries is the small town of Cordoba, on the mid-California coast. But don’t try finding it on a map. It won’t be there. (You might find the actual city of Córdoba in Spain.)
I base Cordoba on the actual town of Cambria, located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Highway 1, not far from Hearst Castle. I’ve visited Cambria many times, but feared that if I actually based the series there, I’d never stop hearing from residents and others about what I got wrong. That could have been part of Grafton’s reasoning as well.
Using a fictional town gives me license to include settings that are simply not in Cambria, such as a marina. I call the numbered streets by their cardinal numbers, not ordinal (One Street, Two Street, etc.). Cambria has no such streets. I also include restaurants, shops, and other businesses that come strictly from my imagination.
Sure, readers familiar with Cambria can easily infer that Cordoba is a thinly disguised impostor, but they won’t be upset when I deviate from details of the actual place. It’s a win-win!