Review by Tweekums

This episode opens at the Mara Retreat, a private clinic dealing with various forms of addiction. A woman checks out late at night. She hasn't got far when her car is rear-ended by another vehicle. The woman driving offers her a drink. The next day she is found hanged in her room. Suicide is suspected but Dodds isn't so sure... after an experiment that leads to a burst pipe a murder investigation gets underway. The chief suspects are the other people undergoing treatment and their councillor, Kelly Mulcreevy. As McDonald and Dodds start their investigation they find their suspects accusing each other in a way that makes them think they are being played.

I enjoyed the opening episode of this new series well enough but thought this was a step up, of course it helped that the previous episode had done the work of introducing the characters. The mystery is good with a closed group of suspects, any one of whom could have done it. They were an interesting group; particularly Mulcreevy. Joanna Scanlan did a great job playing this unpleasant, manipulative character... the scenes where she goads Jason Watkins' DS Dodds were almost painful to watch for the right reasons. There are a couple of weak points, such as how quickly Dodds' colleagues turn on him when the possibility that he made a mistake is raised and the solving of a code requires an unlikely mental leap... still this isn't meant to be a realistic police procedural so can be forgiven. Overall a fine episode; I hope it does well enough for further stories to be filmed.