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Jackson Steeg #3
Sinners' Ball: A Jackson Steeg Novel
Private investigator Jackson Steeg has a new client—his mobster brother, Dave, who’s in deep trouble after a suspicious fire in one of his warehouses leaves half a dozen charred corpses in its wake.Steeg might not approve of his brother’s ways, but blood is blood, so he doggedly chases the truth, even when the trail leads him to a diabolical serial killer haunting the grimy streets of Hell’s Kitchen—and to the realization that the answers to all of his ugliest questions lie far too close to home.Propelled by Ira Berkowitz’s lean, lyrical prose, Sinners’ Ball is another hard-hitting journey into a dark world of old-school gangsters, murky morality, and inherited sin that lies hidden beneath New York City’s antiseptic modern façade.Shamus Award WinnerFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
- GenresMystery
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
26 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 14, 2021
This was a good and entertaining read.
July 20, 2014
Retired cop, now PI Jackson Steeg takes on a case for his gangster brother Dave, one of whose disused warehouses has fallen victim to an arsonist with, as it proves, several murdered people inside. The cops see the crime as a means of nailing Dave at last, but for once he's innocent . . .
If you yearn for the days when the best hardboiled crime came from imprints like Fawcett Gold Medal, there's a treat in store for you here. For me there was an odd time-dislocation effect, in that the novel's set in the present, with cellphones and laptops and cussing and stuff, yet the whole ethos and style seem to belong to '50s pulps . . . or, for that matter, to the early Spenser novels before they went squishy and rote. It's all good stuff except for the fact that the solution to the mystery seems far too neat. (I can't say more on that without giving too much away.) I also found the callousness about brutality and murder a little hard to take, although clearly that's part of Berkowitz's intent.
Overall, then, a good read.
If you yearn for the days when the best hardboiled crime came from imprints like Fawcett Gold Medal, there's a treat in store for you here. For me there was an odd time-dislocation effect, in that the novel's set in the present, with cellphones and laptops and cussing and stuff, yet the whole ethos and style seem to belong to '50s pulps . . . or, for that matter, to the early Spenser novels before they went squishy and rote. It's all good stuff except for the fact that the solution to the mystery seems far too neat. (I can't say more on that without giving too much away.) I also found the callousness about brutality and murder a little hard to take, although clearly that's part of Berkowitz's intent.
Overall, then, a good read.
Read
July 30, 2011Two thugs, hero & former cop Jackson Steeg and his crime boss brother deal with work-life issues like parenting and inept employees with bad attitudes and personality flaws like a disposition towards violence. All while coping with a police frame job and battling murder/prostitution ring. Oh yeah, Steeg solves a couple other incidental crimes along the may
January 15, 2010
This book was captivating. I can't wait for the next book. Ira Berkowitz will be reading a chapter on Wednesday 1/20/10 at Mysterious Book Stores in Manhattan @ 6:30. These Steeg books are a very good read.
January 15, 2010
My pal Ira has written another great cop novel...quick reads with a punch, can't put them down. Highly recommend his first two books as well.
Want to read
February 2, 2019Synopsis: PI Jackson Steeg has a new client - his mobster brother who’s in deep trouble after a suspicious fire.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews