Customer Reviews

A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

It was a good idea when Jeanine Cummins decided to write this very informative and true story of what happened to her cousins on the awful night during Spring break on the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis. It is one thing to hear the media views and what you see on the television, but this however, is an heartfelt account told by the Jeanine `Tink' Cummins. She tells us of the day-to-day agony of what these families went through during the investigations, and how this trial affected their lives. Not only for the girls who were thrown off the bridge, but for poor Tom Cummins as well, who at first was held as a suspect. I felt every bit of pain that I imagined he and his family suffered,
but I was glad for the wonderful tribute that Tink paid to her cousins enlightening the truth of the principles that Julie and Robin Kerry stood for.
Jeanine Cummins did a great job with this story for the people
who never got to hear the real truth.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 03/01/05)

The author takes a very personal story about the murder of her cousins and produces a a well-written book that honors their memory.

The story is interesting and Ms. Cummins tightly versed book keeps your interest with no overdone or lingering sections often found in books. She is a very talented writer who should have a long and brillant career in the writing field.

A job well done for a first-time author. I know that it must have been extremely difficult to write about something so close to home and actually have to document some horribly graphic details about violations that happened to people she loved and loves. She's a very strong person for having the courage to write this book in efforts to tell readers about her cousins, be a voice for her brother, and describe how tragedies affect families, not just individuals. It's easy for us review-writers to sit back and say whether a book was great or it sucked or we think she's doing this for "fame and fortune" (directed to Alert Reviewer from Bridgton, MO). The fact (and "The Truth") is that we would never have the balls to do what she has done and I don't think any of us would want to go through what Julie, Robin, Tom or their families have gone through in exchange for any amount of fame or fortune. Anyone who thinks that this is the sole reason she went through five years of writing and research hell, ridiculous interview questions from dirty cops, and cold shoulders from some family members needs to put themselves in her shoes. Would you go through all that for what a first- author gets paid for their book?(Which is not much -- I can assure you.) No one with their right mind would. We would only do it to memorialize the ones we love, to help other families who have suffered tragedies themselves, and because our brother, who has to live with the memory of this incident for the rest of his life, asked us to. Just like Tink.

Not being from that part of the country, I was unfamiliar with the crime and had never heard of the Kerry sisters until I picked up this book. Now I feel like I've been privileged enough to get to know them in a small way. What a wonderful tribute to these girls, and what an amazing thing the author did for her cousins and brother by writing this book to give them a voice. If anything ever happened to me or one of my loved ones, I could only hope that we would have a champion like Ms. Cummins to make sure we were not forgotten. The book also made me examine my own thoughts and feelings on the justice system and capital punishment. Very thought-provoking. I've been recommending it to all my friends.

Being that I knew people involved I was nervous about reading the book, and learning about the horrible and destructive things that had happened. But I couldn't put it down. It took my breath away, the horror of it all. I felt as thought I had truly missed out on the chance of encountering these truly amazing women. I was also touched deeply, at the authors ability to envelope me into this tight nit family, made me feel their sorry, their fear, their anger, the resolve, and the love they have for each other. A truly well written book, I look forward to more from her.

I went to high school with Robin and Julie. I can't drive over the Mississippi River without thinking about them. The newspaper articles, and TV interviews in St Louis were mainly focused on Tom's (the cousin) guilt, and these "mystery 4 men". I was glad to hear a book had been written from "their" point of view. When I say "their" I mean Robin and Julie. Robin and Julie are gone, and no longer have a voice for themselves, so Jeanine did the best she could to capture this horrible moment in time, and the aftermath it caused.

I feel that as much hatred that she COULD have to the four men that murdered her cousins, and let her brother be blamed for the crimes, Jeanine was fair, and kind to the men. She did not make excuses for their actions, but she did explain how a fun night out, a decision to rob, could turn so dangerous and deadly in minutes.

In this third-person narrative, Jeanine Cummins describes her family's horrendous experience with murder and its aftermath. While on a visit with his family to St. Louis, the author's brother, Tom Cummins, meets up with his teenage cousins Julie and Robin for a last-minute, after-hours jaunt. They end up at an old, abandoned bridge called The Chain of Rocks. It spans the Mississippi River, and that's where their nightmare begins.

After viewing a poem (ironically, about human unity and peace) that Julie has grafitied on the bridge, the cousins encounter four young hoodlums who are feeling restless and "ready to hunt." The cousins' innocent and friendly conversation with these strangers provides a strong counterpoint to the sudden brutality with which they are attacked. A sense of the surreal pervades the rest of the story, as it follows the struggles of the cousins and their family's ongoing ordeal.

In penning this very personal story, Jeanine Cummins has done a remarkable job: her point of view is well-balanced, and the people are defly drawn individuals that we come to care about. This book is particularly excellent at highlighting the similarities between random violence and a legal system which can mindlessly grind up both individuals and families.