Niamh Doherty was a member of the UHC for three years when she was a child.  Her father joined the church and took Niamh (eight), her brother Oisin (six), her sister Maeve (four) and their mother Deirdre to live at Chapman Farm.  Whilst at the farm, Deirdre had another child, a daughter Mazu Wace named Lin (Ch 7).

On the day before Robin leaves for the farm, she and Strike drive to Chalfont St Giles, where Niamh now lives, to interview her.  ‘Niamh was short and plump, with shoulder-length black hair and very bright blue eyes, and was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.’  She is in her mid-twenties and works as an accountant (Ch 21).

In the kitchen, Robin notices a photograph of Niamh with a man of around forty.  Niamh met her husband, Nigel, at her first job, where he was her boss.  They have a son, Charlie, aged two, and a fox terrier named Basil.

Niamh tells Strike and Robin that she hasn’t seen her mother since leaving the church in 2002. She wrote to the UHC a few years ago and they told her that her mother left in 2003.  Niamh says that her brother and sister had never got over their time at the Universal Humanitarian Church – her sister is always at the doctors and her brother drinks too much (Ch 21).