Season 3 opens with a university reunion party that DI Richard Poole is attending brought to an abrupt halt when one of the group is murdered with an ice pick.
It must be a thankless task and he's a good light comedian so he's fine, but there's still a Ben Miller-shaped hole in Robert Thorogood's cheerful murder-puzzle drama.
Throw in an end-of-episode revelation that Goodman's stay on Saint-Marie is likely to be more bachelor than he'd expected, and the island's emotional temperature looks like it may rise several degrees.
Last night, with the return of Death in Paradise, we could again ponder whether the series is indeed a serviceable detective drama or - here's where it really excels - a nice little holiday club for its ensemble cast.
There were some smart observations about retirement home life: the gossip, the cliques and, for some, the loneliness. Refreshingly, these OAPs were portrayed as tech-savvy, doing crosswords on iPads, Skypeing relatives and cursing the wi-fi.