100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery from our NZ-owned independent bookstore! 🎉

A Rip in Heaven

4.22 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 13,552 ratings, 1,150 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins is a gripping true crime narrative that chronicles a horrific family tragedy. It explores the brutal events surrounding the author’s cousins and brother when they become victims of a violent attack, while also detailing the subsequent legal battle and media frenzy. This intense recounting is both a personal memoir and an exploration of the wider implications of such crimes.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of A Rip in Heaven. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're drawn to true crime narratives that delve into real-life family tragedies with heart and sensitivity. Jeanine Cummins offers a compelling and emotional account that blends suspense with personal reflection, making it a gripping read for those interested in crime and human resilience.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A devastating true crime account of a murder that touched her own family, from the author of AMERICAN DIRT

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

A Rip in Heaven is lauded for its poignant and expertly paced narrative, capturing the prolonged impact of a tragic crime on its survivors. The memoir is praised for its engaging, novel-like style that provides a compelling tribute to familial resilience. It delivers a balanced and gripping account of the author's personal family tragedy, resonating with readers through its raw and emotional portrayal.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781472272881

Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 June 2020

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Tinder Press

Illustration: b/w photos

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 336

About the Author

Jeanine Cummins is the author of the novels AMERICAN DIRT, THE OUTSIDE BOY and THE CROOKED BRANCH, and a true crime work, A RIP IN HEAVEN. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Also by Jeanine Cummins

View all
  • American Dirt
    American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is a harrowing tale of survival and resilience that explores the profound lengths a mother will go to in order to protect her child. This captivating novel opens with Lydia Perez, a contented bookstore owner in Acapulco, Mexico, who finds her life irrevocably shattered when her husband, a brave journalist, falls victim to a drug...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club)
    Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt, the #1 New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club pick that has sold over three million copies, is finally available in paperback. Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. While cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the...
    Paperback
    $5000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Speak to Me of Home
    'A riveting tale of three generations, this is storytelling at its finest' JOHN BOYNE, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies 'Why hadn't she said to her daughter I love you beyond reason and none of this matters at all and every day that you breathe is a gift?' Rafaela Acuna y Daubon remembers everything that matters: her beautiful childhood in...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Crooked Branch
    ‘Rich and intricately drawn... luminous prose’ Carolyn Parkhurst After the birth of her daughter Emma, the usually resilient Majella finds herself feeling isolated and exhausted. Then, at her childhood home, Majella discovers the diary of her maternal ancestor Ginny, and is shocked to read a story of murder in her family history. With the famine upon her, Ginny Doyle fled...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Outside Boy
    'A full-throated song of praise. I loved it' Sherman Alexie The Outside Boy is set in Ireland, 1959. Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well: his mother's death...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Speak to Me of Home
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author of American Dirt, comes a heartfelt, multigenerational family story which asks: what does it mean to call a place home?'Delectable... a pleasure to read' THE TIMES'A riveting tale of three generations, this is storytelling at its finest' JOHN BOYNE'Utterly absorbing, a big, sweeping story of family and identity' EDEL COFFEY'Why hadn't she said to...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Speak to Me of Home
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author of American Dirt, comes a heartfelt, multigenerational family story which asks: what does it mean to call a place home? 'Delectable... a pleasure to read' THE TIMES 'A riveting tale of three generations, this is storytelling at its finest' JOHN BOYNE 'Utterly absorbing, a big, sweeping story of family and identity' EDEL COFFEY 'Why...
    Hardback
    Sold Out

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Country Road Murders
    New Release
    The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Nautilus
    New Release
    Nautilus
    The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold River
    New Release
    Cold River
    The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.