The Shadow of Death begins with two former Army nurses that served in Vietnam drinking heavily in a bar and one leaving with a man. She is later found shot to death and raped at her home, and Quincy conducts the autopsy at the coroner lab. He learns from the friend, Rachael Kane (Karen Austin), that the victim suffered from PTSD which she coped with through alcoholism, and it quickly becomes evident to Quincy that Rachael is experiencing the same problems. This leads Quincy to help Rachael better cope with her PTSD through a support group while they also try and figure out who killed her friend.
This is an OK episode which does feature a murder mystery and a surprising twist at the conclusion which are both good things, the only problem is that the murder investigation is so relegated to the background in favor of the PTSD treatment being given the spotlight that it makes it difficult to enjoy. While the large number of Americans returning from military service and suffering from this condition continues to be a critical issue to this day and I'm glad to see that this was addressed, I just feel like at this point in the series I have seen one too many group therapy sessions featured in these types of stories and I'm just over it. I think they could have left some of the therapy scenes out and beefed up the investigation a little more to make this a stronger episode that still delivered an important message effectively.
Overall this is an average Season 7 story that effectively addresses a complex social problem and has a crime investigation thrown in for good measure, but it comes off as a little unbalanced as we see much more of the former rather than the latter.