Chapman Farm is the fictitious retreat centre for the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), a destructive religious cult Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are investigating.
The fictitious farm lies off a road from the Lion’s Mouth and is situated with a view of the St John the Baptist church, Aylmerton.
Colin Edensor gives the detective agency the task of attempting to get his son, Will Edensor, out of the cult. This means that Robin has to go undercover at the Chapman Farm retreat centre for a lengthy period.
Robin first arrives at Chapman Farm in Chapter 24. The minibus enters Lion’s Mouth, a tree-lined road, and turns up a well-maintained track to electric gates that open as the bus approaches. The bus drives up a short driveway and into a car park. Ahead is a long one-story edifice of light brick with Gothic windows.
On arrival, Robin notices the circular tower of St John the Baptist Church on the horizon, which “looked like a rook of a chess-playing giant”.
Chapman Farm was also once the commune (first mentioned in Chapter 7 of The Cuckoo’s Calling) in which Leda Strike took her two children, Cormoran and Lucy. Strike remembers this time as the worst of his young life.
