Bench McCarthy is a thug's thug, a hitman, an underworld jack-of-all-trades running his own mob out of Winter Hill in Somerville while simultaneously handling "wet work" for Sally Curto, a half-demented, totally obscene mob boss. After years of gangland peace, Bench and Sally suddenly find themselves clay pigeons for unknown hit crews coming at them from every direction. The motives are as murky as the hitmen themselves, but all roads seem to lead back to the State House, where corrupt pols are battling over a bill to legalize billions of dollars' worth of new casinos.

Stevie "the Rifleman" Flemmi was, for forty years, one of the most feared gangsters in Boston, and for much of that time, he was the partner of Whitey Bulger, the sixteen-year fugitive with a $2 million reward on his head who was captured in 2011. Flemmi has been convicted of ten murders and took the Fifth Amendment when asked about ten others. His cohort, Bulger, is charged with nineteen more. Rifleman is the story of Flemmi's life of crime, as told to federal and state law enforcement after he pleaded guilty in 2003.