Imagine the film “The Third Man” written by a collaboration of Ramond Chandler, Isaac Asimov, and Woody Allen, with perhaps Moses Maimonides serving in a supervisory capacity, and you’ll have something of the wild melange of genres that coalesce so seamlessly in Phil Cohen’s Nick Bones Underground. There’s mystery, prophecy, hilarity, and a transgender computer all in equal portions. Rarely does one encounter such a wise examination of the dialogue between good and evil wrapped in so colorful and compelling a narrative.
– Steve Stern author The Frozen Rabbi
Nick Bones is a wonderfully complex and ambiguous character, and his sassy computer assistant Maggie is worth the price of admission by herself.
– Eli Hirsch
Cohen is a master storyteller who has crafted a book that is simultaneously great fun and thought-provoking. I recommend it highly!
– David Ellenson
If a Reform rabbi, with a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought, a yen for Hasidism, a lust for science fiction, and a yetser hora for mystery wrote a novel, Nick Bones Underground would be it.
– Jonathan Sarna
The Jewish wit of a Michael Chabon or Jonathan Safran Foer and a dash of absurd sci-fi in the tradition of Douglas Adams.
– Howard Lovy
Phil M. Cohen has delivered a crackling, genre-bending story that has both head and heart.
– Joan Leegant
You can’t help but accompany Nick Bones on his quest for an actual truth that seems to reside with untruth itself in the person Shmulie Shimmer, the inventor of Lerbs. You will be glad you accompanied him on his quest.
– Susan Lang
Phil M. Cohen gives us an engaging detective story with an entertaining cast of characters in need of redemption whether they realize it or not. As religion-professor-turned-
– Katy Yocum, author of Three Ways to Disappear
Phil M. Cohen has ingeniously combined themes one wouldn’t think would go together: a world in chaos, artificial intelligence, a professor-cum-detective, and — religion. And not just any religion, but Hasidism and New Age. Like all good dystopian novels, it challenges us to think about our current situations and quandaries against a surreal backdrop. Norbert Samuelson, noted scholar of Jewish philosophy
