The Cliff House

Book excerpt: Welcome to Murders Under the Sun, a podcast that takes a trip to the dark side of sunny Southern California. I’m Molly Shure, your host. Our journey begins on the stunning cliffs of Laguna Beach, the bright sun shining on the turquoise water below. But this idyllic setting quickly becomes a nightmare for real estate agent Gwen Bishop. She has just landed her dream listing, a multimillion-dollar beachfront property. The home has a dark past, however. Three months ago, another agent was found dead in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Gwen believes the unsolved murder was random. When unsettling things occur, she tells herself the menace she feels is her imagination. When even stranger things happen—things that throw a wrench in her plans to get the home on the market—she brushes off the icy dread creeping through her. The house itself couldn’t be evil…could it? Gwen’s story is the first of seven linked by an almost invisible thread across five years. A thread I noticed while working as a crime journalist. In Season One, I pull that thread to see what unravels. Travel with me to The Cliff House to learn what lay beyond its door. **Portions of this story previously appeared in A Margin of Lust by Greta Boris**