When Charlie Rideout’s best friend David vanishes from a Denver drag bar, he turns to Max Evans — a jaded private detective still haunted by his husband’s murder at the hands of a serial killer. Max swore off missing persons cases, but something in Charlie’s desperate eyes makes it impossible to refuse. What starts as a straightforward search turns deadly when a blood-smeared calling card reveals the killer Max helped convict has escaped — and David’s abduction is a trap designed to drag Max back into a nightmare he never left. As danger closes in, Max and Charlie find themselves drawn together by more than the case, but the killer targets happiness wherever he finds it, and falling for each other might put them squarely in his crosshairs. Set against the neon glow of Denver’s queer nightlife, The Missing Heart is a gripping mystery laced with slow-burn romance, chosen family, and the courage it takes to love again when everything is on the line.