Ira Berkowitz

Ira Berkowitz’s path to writing fiction took thirty years to complete. Growing up in Brooklyn, Berkowitz dreamed of a career in medicine or law. But advertising beckoned. When he retired, he began to write. His first attempt at a novel garnered fifty rejections. A few were encouraging. So, he kept at it.

Berkowitz’s novels explore the themes of family, loyalty, and asymmetrical justice – an all too familiar condition where the cards are stacked against the weak.

His novels are set in Hell's Kitchen, a gentrifying neighborhood with a bloody, sordid past. It is as much a major character in the series as Jackson Steeg, an alcoholic ex-NYPD Homicide Detective. Although he mourns the changes in the neighborhood he loves, Steeg knows a simple truth: No matter how much sheen and glitz is slathered on Hell’s Kitchen, crime will always thrive in its cracks and crevasses.

Berkowitz lives with his wife in Westchester County, New York.

• 2006 Family Matters[6]
• 2008 Old Flame[7]
• 2009 Sinners’ Ball[8]

• Jackson Steeg Ex-NYPD Homicide Detective.Graduate of Most Precious Blood parochial school.,[9]
• Dave Steeg Jackson's brother. Controls the Hell's Kitchen Rackets,[10]
• Anthony Steeg Dave's son. Attended Dartmouth,[11]
• Luce Guidry Steeg's former partner. The only person who uses his first name,[12]
• Dominic Steeg Retired NYPD Homicide Detective. Father of Jackson and Dave.,[13]
• DeeDee Santos Steeg's favorite kid,[14]
• Justin Hapner DeeDee's boyfriend,[15]
• Ginny Doyle Steeg's ex-wife,[16]
• Allie Lebow Steeg's new flame. Advertising copywriter,[17]
• Nick D'Amico Mobster. Owns Feeney's, Steeg's favorite hangout,[18]
• Zev Barak Russian mobster. Known as The Golem,[19]
• Kenny Apple Mobster. Refuses to kill on the Sabbath,[20]
• Hell's Kitchen Steeg's neighborhood,[21]

Washington Irving Award For Literary Merit – Family Matters,Old Flame,[22]

Shamus Award. Best Original Paperback Crime Fiction Novel of 2009 – Sinners' Ball[23]

• Ira Berkowitz