“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.” —Alex Abramovich, author of Bullies: A Friendship

“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 R. 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.”  —Sam Lipsyte, author of No One Left to Come Looking for You

“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.” —Rahne Alexander, musician and author of Heretic to Housewife

"[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 and future relies on a complicated extended family and their immigrant Brooklyn culture. A love letter to NYC & detective fiction." —John Doe (X), musician, actor and author of Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk and More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk

“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.” —Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook, Dermaphoria and Mother Howl

“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.” —Dave Hill, comedian and author of Tasteful Nudes and Dave Hill Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

“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.” —Kim Henkel, filmmaker and screenwriter of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last Night at the Alamo

“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.” —Chris Nashawaty, author of The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982