Charlie Miner wakes up looking down at his body on a gurney at the morgue and realizes that something is terribly wrong – he’s floating above himself. When he moves closer to the body, it pulls him in and he is able to make it get up and walk around. He discovers that he can leave the body and “roam” at will. Charlie, a down-on-his-luck, heroin addicted, insurance fraud investigator, leaves the morgue with two priorities: to get a fix and to find out who killed him. The trouble is, there’s a bullet in his brain and his memory is full of holes. His quest will take him backward to rediscovered memories and forward to new danger, further loss, and, finally, possible redemption. Down Solo borrows from Stephen King only to the extent that, generally, people don’t reanimate their bodies and continue daily life. Otherwise, the novel is more or less a straightforward (well, slightly convoluted) Chandleresque mystery.