From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ira Berkowitz (born on October 8, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer of crime fiction. His Jackson Steeg Mystery Series novels are set in Hell’s Kitchen. Berkowitz’s debut novel Family Matters, published in 2006, won the Washington Irving Award for Literary Merit, and was a USAToday Top Ten Summer Read selection. He followed up with his second Washington Irving Award for his novel, Old Flame published in 2008. The third novel in the Jackso ...