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Book Summary and Reviews of A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins

A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins

A Rip in Heaven

A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath

by Jeanine Cummins

  • Published:
  • Jun 2004, 302 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The acclaimed author of American Dirt reveals the devastating effects of a shocking tragedy in this landmark true crime book—the first ever to look intimately at the experiences of both the victims and their families.

A Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins' story of a night in April, 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which 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 family member would emerge unscathed.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Cummins presents a mesmerizing, highly balanced memoir....[A] compelling, novel-like account...highly admirable." —Publishers Weekly

"Cummins recounts the wrenching drama in a straightforward, expertly paced narrative that reads like a novel." —People

This information about A Rip in Heaven was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Jeanine Cummins

Jeanine Cummins is the bestselling, award-winning author of the groundbreaking memoir A Rip in Heaven and the novels The Outside Boy, The Crooked Branch, American Dirt, and Speak to Me of Home. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

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