Motherless Brooklyn

Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn is a suspenseful mystery that is set in the corrupted world of Brooklyn’s petty criminals. The story follows four orphans from St. Vincent’s Home for Boys and their self-proclaimed mentor Frank Minna. Minna is a mysterious figure, somewhat of a lowlife and womanizer who takes four “motherless” teens under his wing and provides them with a purpose in life as operatives in his so called L&L Detective Agency. These orphans, appropriately dubbed “Minna Men” are: Tony, a tough guy who has secret aspirations to take over the agency, Danny, a calm cool collected individual with looks to match, Gilbert, a goofy, sometimes clueless loser, and Lionel Essrog, a victim of Tourette’s and the main character of the novel.
These four, as members of the detective agency, partake in seemingly erroneous jobs, such as moving furniture for two mob bosses. But when Frank Minna is suddenly murdered while on a stakeout with Gilbert and Lionel...