Legends of Winter Hill: Cops, Con Men, and Joe McCain, the Last Real Detective

For one year, writer Jay Atkinson worked as a private eye for the storied firm McCain Investigations, founded by the late Joe McCain, one of the most decorated police officers in Boston history. In this colorful narrative, Atkinson describes the cases he worked that year, chasing down an assortment of felons, thieves, and con artists, as well as the ghost of a real American hero, legendary cop Joe McCain.

Big Joe was the genuine article, a detective so committed to his work that a gunshot wo...