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Jackson Steeg #1
Family Matters
Jackson Steeg is a disgraced cop at loose ends in Hell's Kitchen, when a dead hooker shows up on his doorstep. Family matters is New York noir at its finest.
- GenresMystery
312 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2006
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Ira Berkowitz
5 books9 followersIra Berkowitz is the author of the Jackson Steeg Mystery Series. His crime fiction novel Sinners' Ball won the Shamus Award in 2010.
He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Writing fiction was the furthest thing from his mind.
He attended New York University, fully expecting to attend Medical School upon graduation. Instead, he wound up in law school. After enduring two years studying torts, contracts, corporate, real estate, and other legal matters - try curling up with the laws of riparian rights on a cold winter night - he decided there had to be a more interesting way to earn a living. And, with only one more year to go, he quit. Now he was really at odds and ends. No career. No job. And no prospects.
Enter his wife - then fiancee - the very wise, Phyllis.
How about advertising, she suggested. He patiently explained he had absolutely no artistic ability, wasn't trained in snappy headline writing, and had never taken a business or marketing course. A career as an ice-road trucker would make more sense. But the more he thought about it, the more alluring her suggestion. Client lunches with Captains of Industry. TV commercial shoots at exotic locations. Expense account. The mad, Mad Avenue whirl! And a big salary to boot! So he went for it, and managed to land a job paying a hundred dollars a week. And found that he loved the business. Thirty years later he retired and realized how lucky he was. There wasn't a day he didn't enjoy going to work.
After several months of doing absolutely nothing and hating it, Ira's wife asked how he planned to keep busy. With a blank stare for a response she suggested he try writing fiction. Once again he patiently explained that he had never taken a creative writing course - and didn't plan to. And, he reminded her, marketing plans were the only pieces of fiction he had ever written. She reminded him of the "advertising" conversation they had had thirty years earlier. It did the trick.
Ira's first effort at fiction garnered fifty rejections. But a few were encouraging, so he kept at it. His second effort, Family Matters, the first book in the Jackson Steeg Mystery Series, was published in 2006 and won the Washington Irving Award for literary merit. And he repeated with Old Flame, published in 2008. Sinners' Ball, the third book in the series will be published, December 2009.
Ira is writing full time and considers himself lucky. There isn't a day he doesn't look forward to going to work.
He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Writing fiction was the furthest thing from his mind.
He attended New York University, fully expecting to attend Medical School upon graduation. Instead, he wound up in law school. After enduring two years studying torts, contracts, corporate, real estate, and other legal matters - try curling up with the laws of riparian rights on a cold winter night - he decided there had to be a more interesting way to earn a living. And, with only one more year to go, he quit. Now he was really at odds and ends. No career. No job. And no prospects.
Enter his wife - then fiancee - the very wise, Phyllis.
How about advertising, she suggested. He patiently explained he had absolutely no artistic ability, wasn't trained in snappy headline writing, and had never taken a business or marketing course. A career as an ice-road trucker would make more sense. But the more he thought about it, the more alluring her suggestion. Client lunches with Captains of Industry. TV commercial shoots at exotic locations. Expense account. The mad, Mad Avenue whirl! And a big salary to boot! So he went for it, and managed to land a job paying a hundred dollars a week. And found that he loved the business. Thirty years later he retired and realized how lucky he was. There wasn't a day he didn't enjoy going to work.
After several months of doing absolutely nothing and hating it, Ira's wife asked how he planned to keep busy. With a blank stare for a response she suggested he try writing fiction. Once again he patiently explained that he had never taken a creative writing course - and didn't plan to. And, he reminded her, marketing plans were the only pieces of fiction he had ever written. She reminded him of the "advertising" conversation they had had thirty years earlier. It did the trick.
Ira's first effort at fiction garnered fifty rejections. But a few were encouraging, so he kept at it. His second effort, Family Matters, the first book in the Jackson Steeg Mystery Series, was published in 2006 and won the Washington Irving Award for literary merit. And he repeated with Old Flame, published in 2008. Sinners' Ball, the third book in the series will be published, December 2009.
Ira is writing full time and considers himself lucky. There isn't a day he doesn't look forward to going to work.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2011
This took me a long time to read because it was so hard to get into. I couldn't figure out the relationships between the characters until halfway into it, but the plot twist at the very end was worth it. Hell's Kitchen is the main setting and it's made known just what it means to live in the Kitchen. Bad people, junkies, cheaters, stinky Indians, etc. make for an interesting piece.
April 15, 2013
I read this book from beginning to end in a couple of days. It was that engrossing. All the characters are well-written and jump off the page. I found it great that Mr. Berkowitz found his literary calling so late in life. This is so much better than that crap "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" I recommend it.
July 15, 2010
It's clearly a first novel, but it's still very strong. I don't understand why the second and third in the series are in paper and this one isn't. I wish I'd read them in order. Berkowitz and Coleman are now among my favorite current hard-boiled writers.
July 24, 2009
The first book of this author. Great character in Detective Steeg. Old Flame gets even better.
April 2, 2014
Fantastic thriller. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a good series to get into.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews