Pan Am 103: The Bombings, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice [Hardcover]

First and foremost, I want you to read "PAN AM 103". The authors are the parents of Theodora ("Theo") Cohen, a then twenty-year old performing arts student that was on board the airplane that exploded over the little Scottish town Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. 270 people were killed. The Cohens try to put into words the agony they have been experiencing from the moment they first learned about the crash up until this minute. They describe how various victims groups, "the grief industry", pills and psychobabble, and the justice system frustrated them, and demonstrate how nobody in the travel industry or in four US administrations "gives a damn what happened to [their] daughter" whenever the possibility of large profits appears on the horizon. Nobody having read this book will forget the face Susan and Daniel Cohen have put on the PAN AM 103 tragedy, Theo's face.

The second reason is to comment on some of the themes of other reviews.

"It is a pointless rant with no technical, operational, or analytical detail."
That is how you make yourself look like the sharp analytical mind you wish you would be, if you only could understand context and contents of a book.

"Hatred, vengeance, and bitterness are emotions that are more poisonous than cyanide. And the Cohens certainly prove that."
Of course, there will always be people who put on a smile after their head has been dipped into a toilet bowl - a North-American tradition. There are times, however, when the only thing that is left is being true to oneself, no more need to conceal emotions, to work out compromises.

Lockerbie at the time had the smallest police force in the whole of the United Kingdom. Scottish police and volunteers and armed forces readily abandoned their families over Christmas in order to assist in the devastation that fell on the small town of Lockerbie that night. Many police officers had nervous breakdowns due to the gruesome tasks that they had to perform . Scottish housewifes abandoned their families and Christmas celebrations as a mark of respect and willingly washed the soiled clothes of the deceased so that relatives could be spared further anguish when collecting the remaining personal effects. The whole town came to a standstill and Lockerbie too lost innocent residents when the plane fell. How dare Susan Cohen disregard what happened to those townsfolk whose children woke up in the morning to see dead bodies laying in their street and strewn across the neighbouring fields ? Nothing will ever replace Theo and as an only child her loss must be devastating to her parents. I am sure the book was written in bitterness and frustration due to the immense sense of loss and anger at the preventable unecessary murder. I too felt compassion for the grieving Cohens as they expressed their anger in the first half of the book. But like other readers I felt the Cohens let themselves down by insulting anyone and everyone who did not comply with their wishes or appeared to be inferior. It is a shame that the book will be remembered for its bitter snarling attack on the town that offered their daughter as much dignity as was possible. Their book shows very little respect for the law and for the humanity that other people showed in a country that was also a victim to the tragedy. As tiny as Britain maybe and as tragic a case this was Theo and Lockerbie deserve a little more dignity than the book allows. Read with an open mind and then read Rosemary Mild's book who too lost an only child - her daughter Miriam and note the difference between the two. One is a wonderful tribute the other a bitter angry attack , one is written with dignity and sensitivity and one is written with total disregard very little respect. How very sad that all that energy and obvious talent for writing couldn't have been put to a better use.