Joshua has the ability to make friends with historical figures of the period. Here are a few:
Babe Ruth appears in A Darker Shade of Greed.
Wyatt Earp is in Vengeance of the Ripper & The Killer's Code.
Silent movie star Tom Mix shows up in The Killer's Code.
Here is an exert from the Forward of Killer Nights: The Essential Adventures by author Michael Hartnett:
Raymond Chandler famously described the hero, "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero. He is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man."
Steve Leshin's Joshua Oates novels are wonderfully evocative of the male detective tradition.