Sabrina Mayfield is a social worker, and on receiving a panicked call from one of the teenage kids she monitors, she rushes unwisely off to see if he's in trouble. Deputy Clay Starke arrives to help her at the manky trailer location, and sees signs of a meth lab - a deadly risk in more ways than one for kids left in the trailer.

THE LAWMAN RETURNS from taking exams in Nashville to the less than glamorous job of deputy in Wrangler's Corner, Tennessee. A deputy has been killed on the job in recent weeks, and this trailer might provide the information needed to solve that crime. After some tense encounters, Sabrina is in charge of two small children. She decides to foster them temporarily with an approved couple who happen to be Clay's relatives. Unfortunately a feud in the previous generation has left bitterness and while the children are accepted, Sabrina is met with hostility. Clay tries to support her, as the feud is none of her doing, but he can't erase the resentment. As the two of them continue to work the case, they begin to suspect that someone is trying to silence Sabrina.

The tension mounts and a reader will find plenty of suspense with not too much actual violence until later on. Maybe it's the rural area, but every person we meet seems to be waving a rifle. I very much got the picture that the small town gossip continued to make life difficult for families and made it harder for people to become reconciled. Family issues are a large part of this story. While this is an inspirational suspense story I still found it unlikely that a social worker would have passed the time with a police officer by swapping books on theology. I also was uneasy with the tradition of holding a large barbecue party before Christmas, when snow was possible, on the edge of town.

While Lynette Eason's THE LAWMAN RETURNS is not a Christmas story, there is plenty of snowfall in the backwoods, posing a survival challenge, and the warmth of tenderness melts through often as a friendship strengthens to love. Anyone wanting to put their feet up over Christmas and enjoy a good action story could appreciate the adventures that occur when THE LAWMAN RETURNS.