Need a foreign city for my story.

Alright, I've got a hunter party of four going after the cause of dozens of unsolved murders in a third-world country done by the servants of "the order". I need a place with a portion of the population whose murders the police would not investigate, and buildings that work well with parcour(the MC is between Indiana Jones and that guy from equilibrium, if a bit watered down).

My first thought is Rio de janeiro, but I'm against it basically just because it doesn't feel right.

Actually, Rio would have been my first choice. The favelas make an extremely good backdrop for chase scenes. I mean, look at the pics for Rocinha.

Without knowing anything about your character's nationality or what continent you want them to be in, I'd recommend Cape Town, South Africa. It's foreign, it's in a relatively poor country and it's metropolitan enough for some parkour. Moscow and other big East European cities might work. Maybe one of the larger cities around the Black and Caspian Sea. Casablanca, Shanghai and Hong Kong might also be good choices. They're not exactly third world but they have buildings for parkour and it's somewhat safe for westerners to be running around in.

China would be good. The murder rate isn't too too high (i think) but if your mysterious Order has the CCP looking the other way, and narrow streets make for excellent parkour. Something like Hong Kong, Nanjing, Hangzhou.

Thanks everybody, all very good.

Are you still looking for possible cities? If so, at the risk of sounding distasteful, might I suggest Port-au-Prince, Haiti - perhaps set during the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake? I always thought the setting had a lot of potential as a backdrop for an action-mystery story. Given the state of emergency what with everything that was going on, the police are stretched thin struggling just maintaining some semblance of order. With so many dead, nobody has the time to look too closely at any bodies that turn up; nor would they think to look for foul play.

So what if people are disappearing from a shelter? Can anyone be sure they just didn't move to another one? Even if someone turned up dead despite supposedly being seen alive since the earthquake, can anyone be sure that really was the case? Plus, parkour and chase sequences through the ruined city make for striking imagery. And that's all before even considering the voodoo elements that can be incorporated into "the order".

edited 8th Jul '13 4:33:38 PM by peasant

...Aftermath of a large disaster...

Perfect! That's a great reason for my characters to be there in the first place. I probably won't use Haiti(It's my world, I can make disasters happen wherever I like; Haiti itself could be seen as distasteful, like a fictional book set in the second tower of the world trade center.)

I know what you mean. Maybe in a decade or so it will be more acceptable. I mean, look at Titanic.

• Nods in acknowledgement*

consider a city that historically has a dark, mystic reputation to begin with. Calcutta, Cairo, and Shanghai come to mind. And in the aftermath of some sort of disaster? Perfect.

Tokyo would be the logical choice.

But seriously, there's lots of good suggestions in this thread. In case you're still taking suggestions, though: Beirut. A former colonial capital with a rich and vibrant history and culture that has fallen on hard times, in a nation sandwiched right next to one collapsing state and another martially-inclined one. Plenty of options for intrigue.