Jimmy Dawson and The Defenders race against time in their pursuit of a serial rapist and human traffickers in this high-stakes sequel.

Jimmy Dawson, introduced in McDonald’s series debut, The Defenders (2025), has been paroled after spending almost three years in Leavenworth prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now fully exonerated, Dawson serves as a member of the clandestine Defenders, using his powers as an intuitive empath who can sense the good and evil in people to protect the innocent. Bert Halston is a mega-evil trucker who runs drugs for Mr. Pham, a high-ranking member of a Vietnamese gang based in Chicago; he is also a murderer of women. Ten years earlier, Bert killed Katie Miller, the best friend of The Defenders’ founder. Dawson foils his attempted abduction of a waitress named Hannah, which puts him in the killer’s crosshairs. The rest of The Defenders are focused on the search for Camilla Estrada, a Mexican native whose father has been murdered by the Zeta drug cartel. A promising student with a bright future ahead, she becomes a captive of a human trafficking ring run by Mr. Pham. But Camilla, in the words of one of her captors, is “a feisty one,” and she will not go quietly. As for The Defenders, this missing person case is “a perfect example of what the team was built for.” No matter their stand on illegal immigration, “the bottom line is that we have an 18-year-old girl who is missing…Let’s find her first, and then worry about the legal issues.” Mileage may vary among readers regarding The Defenders’ rather tenuous grasp of the legal issues. At one point, they abduct Bert’s sister and inject her with various drugs. “Who are you guys?” she quite reasonably inquires. But their targets are truly the worst of the worst, so there is some satisfaction in the team’s pursuit of vengeance.

A briskly told thriller sure to engage armchair vigilantes.