“RAYMOND CHANDLER by way of LOU REED…”
BROOKLYN MOTTO by Alex R. Johnson
Fans of Richard Price, Charlie Huston, and Jonathan Lethem will love this coming-of-age New York-centric detective noir debut from esteemed filmmaker and screenwriter Alex R. Johnson.
New York City, 1998. New York is changing around Nico Kelly, and he can feel more coming.
A private investigator and self-proclaimed photographer, Nico is stuck in a loop of city contracts and self loathing. What little middle class there was is disappearing—long-standing factories are moving out and taking their reliable neighborhood jobs with them, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s police force has the streets in a stranglehold.
Nico spends his days looking for fraudsters while taking photos of municipal employees on disability claims. He spends his nights trying to get rid of the nagging feeling that his day job makes him a professional snitch—traversing dive bars, playing pinball, and fighting through the haze of hungover mornings and blurry evenings.
Pushing thirty years old and feeling split between his American and Latin heritage, between youth and adulthood, Nico finds himself at a precipice—who is he and what should he become?
When Nico witnesses and records a murder during one of his insurance fraud investigations, bodies start to turn up all around him and he’s forced into solving a mystery he didn’t ask to solve. Humorous, gritty, and real, Nico’s search for what it means to be human takes him through the deepest and darkest parts of New York City.
INQUIRIES: brooklynmottobook@gmail.com
Praise for BROOKLYN MOTTO
““Brooklyn Motto” is a stylish, propulsive mystery that beautifully captures late 90s New York City in the convulsions of enormous social and economic change. Alex Johnson combines novelistic texture with cinematic pace to great effect, and narrator Nico Kelly is the perfect guide to this world full of danger, corruption, and also hope. ”
““Brooklyn Motto” is my favorite kind of hardboiled thriller — smart, funny, fast-paced, and wonderfully cinematic. I didn’t want it to end… The characters are beautifully drawn, the details are spot-on, and the central mystery that fuels his stunning, richly-layered debut is as good as New York noir gets. Johnson brings the city’s dangerous and gloriously seedy, pre-gentrification era to vivid, glorious life — the late nights, last calls, and loneliness you can only feel in a city you share with seven million others. I loved this book ... and now I’m waiting for the movie.”
“A wonderful, sharp and snazzy read that puts the big screws to detective fiction conventions. The real star here, though, is the NYC of 1998, a forgotten, pre-digital New York of payphones, dollar vans, sidewalk eccentrics, East Village dives and shabby one-bedroom walkups that were still affordable.”
“[Brooklyn Motto] is an inventive hard-boiled mash-up starring a reluctant GenX PI who accidentally finds himself in way over his head. His backstory & future relies on a complicated extended family & their immigrant Brooklyn culture. A love letter to NYC & detective fiction.”
“With “Brooklyn Motto” Alex R. Johnson manages to check all the boxes when it comes to concocting a contemporary detective story, weaving a taut and thrilling tale peppered with legitimately funny moments. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of books Elmore Leonard would write if he logged some miles on the downtown NYC music scene circa 1998, this is the book for you!”
“Alex R. Johnson’s playful, witty, brooding, and heartfelt Brooklyn Motto is everything readers of classic private detective fiction could want - but placed in the nothing-like-classic East Village and Brooklyn of 1998. Either Johnson has a photographic memory for places and moods, or he’s done remarkable research in bringing that time and those places to life. Brimming with distinctive characters, clever language, and crisp observations, the book is a thoroughly engaging and deeply satisfying read. I tore through it and had a lot of fun.”
“A thriller that remains clear throughout. Politically bold, a surprisingly tender story. A young PI, half Philip Marlowe and half Holden Caulfield... He fights corrupt landlords and cops while drinking in the hippest bars of 90s Brooklyn, and all under the shadow of the worst Mr. Big anyone could imagine: Rudy Giuliani.”
““Brooklyn Motto” reminds me of the best of Elmore Leonard and Walter Mosley, a murder mystery that keeps peeling back the layers of New York City until the reader, and the novel’s hero Nico, can see the city’s dark beating heart. Nico Kelly’s world-weary, big-hearted voice is unforgettable. Alex R. Johnson’s debut made this former New Yorker miss my city very much.”
““Brooklyn Motto” is both a love letter to its namesake borough and a microcosm of the American Dream sold short. Nico can pull up a barstool alongside the great PI’s of the genre, but they might need to spot him a round. I really dug this.”
“Alex R. Johnson’s “Brooklyn Motto” is written beautifully, disturbingly, and hilariously, which is to say perfectly. And as a lover of both New York City and crime (both the committing and solving of), it felt like a sting operation to me in the best of ways.”
““Brooklyn Motto” is Raymond Chandler by way of Lou Reed: street-smart, razor-sharp, humming with menace. Johnson doesn’t just capture the city on edge; he drags you down its avenues, one gut-punch line at a time.”
““Brooklyn Motto” is a top-shelf cocktail infused with the ghostly flavors of a vanishing New York. One part Raymond Chandler, one part Pavement, and one part Blow-Out, Alex R. Johnson serves up the tastiest 90’s neo-noir this side of 14th Street.”
“An impressive work. A rich, almost palpable sense of the city from a unique perspective. (Alex R. Johnson) brings it alive. Wonderfully drawn characters. A great read. More please.”
“(Alex R. Johnson’s) vivid portrayal of late 90s Manhattan provides an authentic backdrop complete with mixtapes, pagers, payphones, and Y2K fears. With its unique cast of complex characters and engaging storyline, “Brooklyn Motto” is a fresh take on the detective genre.”
“Alex R. Johnson’s beautiful “Brooklyn Motto” paints a vivid picture the 1990s NYC I knew and loved. It made me feel like I was at Dojo eating a soy burger dinner - IYKYK. AND it’s funny! AND it’s an action-packed mystery!”
“Thoroughly entertaining and just odd enough to keep us guessing. I could smell the boroughs of New York in every sentence. Loved the book, highly recommend it! A real page turner.”
ALEX R. JOHNSON
Johnson’s feature film TWO STEP premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW and went on to become a New York Times Critic’s Pick, as well as remaining 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
His screenplay NORTHEAST KINGDOM was selected for the Black List. It was acquired by Paramount Pictures for Platinum Dunes to produce, with Johnson attached to direct.
His screenplay ANY ROUGH TIMES ARE NOW BEHIND YOU was selected by the Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive lab. There, he spent three days working one-on-one with late director Jonathan Demme, an experience that was as inspiring as it was creatively life changing.
He also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Ernest Tidyman’s novel, BIG BUCKS, for Pascal Pictures.
His debut novel, BROOKLYN MOTTO, will be released in March of 2025.
Prior to writing and directing, Johnson was a seasoned NYC based commercial and documentary producer. He started his career at the legendary Maysles Films and then branched off to work with other directors, including producing the feature documentary I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN for filmmaker Pete Sillen.
Johnson's family hails from the Andes of Ecuador. A government brat, he moved frequently but was raised mostly between New York City and the suburbs of DC.
He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY..
Photo by FJ Parsa
PRAISE FOR ALEX R. JOHNSON’S TWO STEP
“TWO STEP is a nasty, flawlessly acted little gem… This lean character-driven movie has such an acutely observant screenplay that it is easy to empathize with people struggling to make a decent living by hook or crook. Its psychological precision elevates it to something more than a genre piece.”
“Makes most Hollywood thrillers seem ham-fisted by comparison… Besides his sure gift for incisive characterizations and acerbically witty dialogue, Johnson also displays a strong visual sense, with the film shot and edited for maximum effect.”
“A slow-burn thriller with rich Texas flavor, TWO STEP reps a promising feature debut for writer-director Alex R. Johnson. This character-driven picture takes its time marinating in quiet conversations and Austin atmosphere, making the sudden jolts of violence all the more shocking when they land.”
“A superb debut from a welcome new voice on the indie scene, TWO STEP is a wonderfully crafted thriller… A deliciously taut and tense piece of work”
“Nifty Texas noir TWO STEP gets us acclimated to its community of fully realized and differentiated characters before letting blood flow or bullets fly - which is another way of saying that writer/director Alex R. Johnson dares honor the bygone art of cinematic storytelling. It’s a film in which costs - human, financial, moral - are always fully counted and felt.”
“This is what film festivals are good for. To discover films like this that you haven’t heard about and wouldn’t expect to be special. It’s sharply written and produced and draws you in with a straightforward story of menace felt or perpetrated by unusually complex characters. 4/5 stars”
“TWO STEP is a well-timed slow boil.”
“Johnson is an incredibly disciplined storyteller and filmmaker. As the latter, he deconstructs the thriller genre and rebuilds it with a rich genuineness of events, surrounded by intricate layers of character and relationship development that a viewer usually doesn’t find in a home invasion film.”
“TWO STEP is a jolting, beautifully orchestrated piece of work.”
“Such a slow burn that it’s smoldering.”