A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath [Paperback]

Jeanine Cummins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

When my parents packed my brother, sister and me into the family van and drove us to Missouri for Spring Break, we brought our entirely imagined city-hardness with us. The hard truth that we were about to learn was that, in fact, we weren't tough kids at all. Our life in the city had not prepared us for anything. Nothing could prepare us for this.

A Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins's story of a night in April 1991, when her two cousins, Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Chain of Rocks Bridge that spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis. When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn't have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no one would emerge unscathed.

This is one family's intimate, immediate, and unforgettable story of what victims can suffer long after they should be safe.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On the night of April 4, 1991, during a spring-break family vacation to St. Louis, Cummins's 19-year-old brother, Tom, and his two female cousins were attacked while walking on the abandoned Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. During the attack, the girls were raped; afterward, all three were pushed off the bridge by the four assailants. Tom survived; the girls did not. Cummins presents a mesmerizing, highly balanced memoir of the events, writing in the third person to give readers "an intimate knowledge of each facet of the story." She introduces her own family, referring to herself by her childhood nickname, and then does the same for each of the assailants, thoughtfully painting an in-depth portrait of each character without ever passing judgment. Moreover, she takes what could be cold, dry factual information from "court documents, police records, electronic media" and her own interviews and deftly weaves them into a compelling, novel-like account. She explores the family's initial horror over the police holding Tom as a suspect for this crime that made national headlines. (One of the attackers wound up with a 30-year plea; the others are currently on death row.) For someone so closely related to a crime victim to strike such a fine balance in chronicling it is a highly admirable feat. Cummins's noble account will ultimately draw readers into all sides of the story. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW.
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Review

Cummins recounts the wrenching drama in a straightforward, expertly paced narrative that reads like a novel. -- People, June 1, 2004

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade; First Thus edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451210530
• ISBN-13: 978-0451210531
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > Midwest

More About the Author

Jeanine Cummins is the bestselling author of the groundbreaking memoir A RIP IN HEAVEN. She worked in the publishing industry for ten years before becoming a full-time writer. She was born in Spain, and has lived in California, Maryland, Belfast, and New York City, where she remains now with her Irish husband and growing family. THE OUTSIDE BOY is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book & a Wonderful Tribute!, June 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath (Paperback)

Tink (Cummins) did an outstanding job of documenting a terrible event and the aftermath that affects the victims and their families. She invites the readers into her tight-knit family with open arms and once you are in the family circle, her vivid description of this horrific night and the years that follow consumes you. This book is a great eye opener for all of those "psycho-killer" followers (American Justice or Cold Case Files viewers) and gives a very balanced and poiniant perspective on the people who matter -- the victims.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Cherish Your Childhood Memories, This Will Break Your Heart., April 27, 2006

By 

C. Smith "JrZyChris" (County Jail, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath (Paperback)

Not all, but most of us have grown up with fond memories of family gatherings - whether frequent or infrequent, with cousins near in age whom we admired or admired us, all of the good times thought about during the course of our daily lives.

For this family, happiness and normal life as they knew it came to a sudden hault as a horror they never expected unfolded before them. Read this book. The author is able to give you a true account of what really went on because she is the sister of one of the victims, Tom and cousin to the other two victims, Julie and Robin.

This story will give you an idea of how the justice system can sometimes work under pressure to solve a murder case. Eventually the truth comes out but a lot of people can go through a living hell before that happens.

After I read a true crime story, I try to find as much information as possible regarding the case, written by other sources. I was sickened by some of the information I found fighting for the lives of those convicted of this horrific crime. That is just a personal opinion though.

You will get to know the deceased through this book, and perhaps question your higher power on why such valuable lives are taken in such a violent way. I felt I came to know the victims as if I'd gone to school with them. I never knew them but I miss them.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking the Story Back, June 3, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath (Paperback)

So much of what we see in the media today sensationalizes the brutality of crime and in some sense celebrates the monsters who commit them. The stories become about them, and the victims and their families are all too quickly forgotten.

Thanks to Jeanine Cummins, we get an insightful look into one family's ordeal, their struggle to come to terms with the sensation that rose up around the case and how the media focuses all too often on the criminals.

But at its heart, this is a loving tribute to her lost cousins, Robin and Julie. This book serves, beautifully, in taking their story and remembering truly what has been lost. For over a decade, the focus has been on the bad guys who she portrays quite evenly given her closeness to the subject matter. Now the story has been take back as a fitting memoir to her cousins, told with an insight into what it means to be victimized that we could all stand to learn from.