The Girls Are Gone: The True Story of Two Sisters Who Vanished, the Father Who Kept Searching, and the Adults Who Conspired to Keep the Truth Hidden

by Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann

On the evening of April 19, 2013, Samantha and Gianna Rucki disappeared. Two of five children born to David Rucki and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, the teenage sisters vanished in the midst of their parents’ divorce.

The girls’ father, David Rucki, worked tirelessly with law enforcement to search day and night for his two missing daughters, following every lead while raising three remaining children at home. Their mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, used her newfound freedom to vacation around the world, abandoning her children. And as the investigation intensified, catching the attention of the media, Sandra also disappeared.

The Girls Are Gone is the true story of two sisters who went missing, the father who kept searching, and the adults who conspired to keep the truth hidden.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Suspense, Mystery, Ebooks, Book Club

506 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 23, 2018

About the author

Michael Brodkorb has spent his professional career working in politics, communications, and public relations. Michael is currently a columnist for MinnPost and he previously worked as a special correspondent for the Star Tribune. He is a lifelong resident of Minnesota.

Michael Brodkorb and Allison Mann came together during the 2016 criminal trial of a mother who abducted and hid two of her five children. Their passion for finding truth and justice through different mediums led them to partner in writing The Girls Are Gone. Michael and Allison spent two years working together investigating, researching and writing to find the answers to many questions that had been left unanswered for years.

Reviews

[Krystin | TheF*ckingTwist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Blog | Bookstagram

Who knew family court drama could be so fucking crazy? I mean, I suppose I should have, but nothing I’ve witnessed my husband deal with really comes close to the levels of nuttiness presented in this true tale.

David and Sandra Rucki were together for 20-something years when Sandra seems to change on a dime and tricks David into a divorce where he is left with nothing but their combined debt. Sandra takes everything else, including full custody of their five children. David obviously isn't going to take this lying down (aside from the part where he did in the beginning I guess) so he fights back. And what follows is eight years of Sandra and her cult-like supporters doing everything they can to turn the kids against David and destroy his life by spreading rumours, accusing him of endless abusive crimes and revealing his personal information all over the state of Minnesota. It's like a little Qanon/Trump microcosm.

In the process, some of Sandra’s supporters also use the Rucki case to try and reshape the family court system in their state, coming across as fucking morons in the process.

Through all of the legal and personal insanity that Sandra orchestrates, eventually, she loses custody of her kids and rightly so. With no other immediate recourse, Sandra and a couple of her crackpot partners in crime essentially kidnapped the two oldest girls, hiding them with strangers. The two girls will stay missing for 944 days under the influence of unending parent alienation, while David continues his court fights and the search for his missing daughters.



It is a hell of a story that requires your full attention to completely soak up the pure and utter crazy of the people involved.

This book was written by the journalist who covered the case, Michael Brodkorb - who was subsequently targeted for harassment by Sandra and her supporters - and the paralegal, Allison Mann, who worked for David Rucki's lawyer. It's told primarily through court transcripts and news articles, with personal details added for a greater understanding of the situation as it unfolds.

Personally, this type of storytelling really worked for me. I found it fast-paced and interesting. Reading the actual words spoken in court by Sandra Rucki and her fucking stupid ass-lawyer, Michelle MacDonald (a Republican pick for Minnesota Supreme Court, no less) was at times hilarious and at other times dumbfounding.

Sandra Rucki and her gang of morons turn the entire Minnesota legal system into a shitshow and reading about it was grade-A entertainment. And also kind of terrifying because these kinds of people (you know the ones) have only multiplied since this was published.



There are aspects to the story that I wish were explored more or had theories presented, at least. Like, why did Sandra do what she did? Did she always have a history of mental illness? What triggered this? What prompted her to create and execute this evil plan against David Rucki and her children?

I would have liked more input from the family members who agreed to be in the book, more of their memories or opinions on certain events to have been added to the overall retelling. Especially that of David, who you don't hear from at all.

Other than that, this is a BANANAS story that made an interesting addition to the true crime genre.


⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 4 stars


book source: An arc in exchange for a review.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 2 out of 5]

“This book is about a family destroyed by crimes that often go unnoticed.”

The Girls Are Gone is a pretty insane true crime story, a family drama as opposed to a grizzly murder case. And that’s fine, not all true crime needs to be infused with murder, but I’m struggling to understand why this needed to be a full-length novel.

In the midst of their parent’s divorce, teenagers Samantha and Gianna Rucki go missing. And whilst their father is doing everything he can to find them, their mother is off sunning herself on extravagant holidays. And that’s only a smidgen of all the DRAMA!

The book is full of court transcripts and blog posts/news articles. It’s the equivalent of following a divorce and custody case, but unfortunately that involves having to read EVERY single statement and interrogation. I have no issue with reading court proceedings - Helter Skelter has quite a lot of them and I LOVE that book - but this was just dull. So much repetition, I just wanted to shout, “I GOT IT, OKAY?!”

My main issue though is the fact that we only get one side of the story. The book is co-written by a paralegal and a journalist who were involved in the case, and although the evidence presented indicates that this is seemingly how shit went down, the bias is just staggering. They don’t even refer to the possibility that they might not be impartial, it’s all just presented as “facts” and that bothered me.

So yeah. This is going on the donate pile. Glad I read it, because it was an interesting case with twists and turns, and it does really bring to light the awful consequences of parental abduction, but it didn’t really need to be a fully-fleshed novel, in my opinion. 2 stars.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started off so promising I bought it after reading the preview, and it indeed an engrossing reading experience, but ultimately it was also a frustrating one. I'm landing on a 3.5 here. This book's greatest strength is ultimately also its weakness: this is a true crime accounting that leans primarily on legal blow-by-blow and court transcripts. Now, as a thorough walk-through of a bonkers divorce case followed by criminal trial, it fires on all cylinders. The authors were a journalist who covered both cases and a lawyer who worked on the husband's legal team and they offer professional and personal insights into the case.

Where the book falls down is in its failure as compelling narrative non-fiction. Likely because the journalist co-author's background was news reporting rather than features, the book leans heavy on telling and editorializing, without proper context in many cases, re: the involved parties, and without enough storytelling to make for a compelling arc.

To wit: the book starts off with a brief backstory for David Rucki and Sandra Gruzzini-Rucki, who end up in a shockingly contentious divorce and parental alienation case that leads to the disappearance of two of their daughters. And I mean brief. We know he was an All-American Minnesota boy, and she was a vivacious cheerleader. They met, fell in love, married, had five kids. That's ALL we get--topline details, nothing deeper, no analysis. We're thrown headlong into Sandra tricking David into a divorce where he lost everything, including his kids, without sufficient background... and the book doesn't "jump back" for context, re: what their marriage was actually like and what the kids were like before either ever OR until the 90% mark when we FINALLY hear from the kids. It was an odd narrative choice made to "hold back" anything from the kids' perspective until the very end, which I personally did not care for. And even once they did "speak" the bizarre choice was made to let the lawyer cover Samantha and Nia with a TON of editorializing and more topline vaugeries in lieu of sufficient detail. (Her making statements about how they made her cry without actually explaining anything they said or stories they relayed) Overall the authors insert themselves into the narrative, such that it is, a lot.

I was left wanting for proper context, re: what was David and Sandra's marriage actually like? She clearly has a raging personality disorder, and while I don't expect an armchair diagnosis, I do expect some details and stories about their marriage pre-divorce blowup. At the very end the kids vaguely reference fighting and like THAT SHOULD NOT BE THE FIRST TIME WE HEAR THIS. Don't tell me these two gorgeous kids met, fell in love, had five kids, and had a perfect marriage until Sandra became a different person. That's clearly not what happened! I also found I knew nothing about the kids, nothing important, until far too late (or, again, not at all). As we're hearing harrowing accounts of all five kids saying their dad is abusive and they're afraid of him and refusing to cooperate in therapy I was left wondering: what is this in contrast to? What were they like before? What were their interests, hobbies, personalities, sibling dynamics, how were they with mom and dad? Essentially I never got a proper sense of who they were as people or how they functioned as a family before everything imploded. To me, that makes for an incomplete and less satisfying story. A good narrative/features journalist would know that and have done those interviews, provided that context, had far more storytelling (see, for comparison: Gregg Olson's If You Tell).

THAT SAID... if you're fascinated by complicated legal cases and unreasonable and/or unwell people who act like complete morons in court... this is FUN. It beggars belief some of the things people said and did in the course of these various cases. I could have done without the authors' overly editorializing, calling people evil (they did that but didn't armchair diagnose lol), but overall I feel I got quite the picture of these cases. But that said: yeah this is full of bias. I do feel the bias is on the side of the reasonable parties, so that's something, but it's hardly even-handed in places... but it's not like Brodkorb didn't speak to both sides. He did, and he characterizes how combative, manipulative, and underhanded the "other side" was. The bias didn't bother me, except where the writing favored broad editorializing (so and so was "evil") over stories, context, details.

So my main quibble remains that it's not wholly satisfying as a piece of narrative nonfiction, but it IS satisfying as a thorough and entertaining legal accounting of some BIZARRE cases. But bearing that in mind, this one won't work for readers who don't enjoy legalese/the law/family law.

[Sandra Laymon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A ridiculously bad book

Well, I have read about half of this book and I am just not going to torture myself anymore! I have far too many great books I want to read and to continue one more minute reading this one would be a huge waste of my time! I'm not sure what I originally thought this book was about but it certainly wasn't this!! When I read true crime books I usually like detail but not like this!!! This book literally reprinted the court transcripts...every single word. And when it went to the transcripts, the print in the book went to a very tiny print that was very difficult to read. I really don't care to waste anymore time on this book, including this review. Just be warned, it is a terrible, poorly written piece of nothing. Please be careful and don't waste your time or money on this book. There are hundreds of really good true crime books out there but this is NOT one of them! This is my opinion.

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a case with so much going on in it like this one I am surprised I hadn't been aware of it before I read this book. David Rucki and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki married and had five children.
These children loved their parents and just wanted to grow up and be normal people.
Being married to his wife for more than twenty years David trusts his wife, they just had that connection. When she brings him some papers to sign he does without even reading them, that's where this fiasco starts when he makes that mistake. The police forcibly remove him from his home in front of his children at night, scaring them telling him telling him he is divorced and has no right to any of his belongings . In court he loses custody of his children as court tells him he signed away all his rights,gave her the properties,the vehicles and that he agreed to pay all the debts. Just by signing the papers without reading them this happened. Now this is the first true crime that I've read where no murder has been committed so it's definitely different.
This woman is the most selfish woman I have ever read about in my life! After he gains custody of his children by working extremely hard to regain a stable and loving relationship with them, the day he gains custody two of his daughters go missing from his house. Now what kills me is such a huge effort is made by the father to find his daughters. He puts so much time and money into this effort while the mother, who is a wack job gets people to lie and block efforts of the court to find the truth out about what happened to her daughters. Now I personally as a mother can not understand this kind of thinking. How could she stop caring about her daughters, go on cruises while their missing, gallivant around with men. This woman is using her children to get back at her husband for something she has perceived he has done. There were plenty of court documents and transcripts to explain everything going on. This non-fiction book really held my attention. Lovers of court room drama and a well researched book will enjoy this.
Paperback, 336 pages
Published October 23rd 2018 by Wise Ink Creative Publishing.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

[Nancy❤The❤Bookaholic · Rating 2 out of 5]

The way this book is written is just not for me. I got to about 20% and lost interest. Very disappointing because I think it could've been written better to catch the readers attention.

[Alex Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was given this book for review.

After finishing this book, it took a few days to reconcile everything I loved about it with the issues I had. At the beginning, I thought this was on track to be a solid four stars and my favorite true crime of the past six months. Then the issues began piling up and at the end of the day, I couldn't justify giving this book more than two stars. It's one that I don't think I could, in good conscience, recommend.

To start with the positives, I absolutely adored the courtroom focus. Most true crime books have some kind of angle, and this was almost the story of this family from the point of view of the court. There were long sections of courtroom transcripts and I think almost every page had some kind of excerpt, whether from court transcript, news articles, emails, etc. I can see how some people might find that boring, but I loved it so much. It was fascinating to read and by far my favorite part of the book. The court transcripts in particular were wonderful to read, while I found the news articles redundant.

My main issue was the biases of the authors. After finishing this book, it didn't feel like I had an overall understanding of the case. It felt like I'd just had one party's lawyers explain the case to me. (Which it almost kind of was- Allison Mann, one of the writers, was a paralegal at the law firm representing the father in this case.) In cases like this where the book's authors are close to one side, I expect there to be biases, but this went above and beyond what I generally would consider normal. I'd have even been more forgiving if they'd addressed their biases as part of the book, but instead it was written as though everything included was impartial.

This honestly isn't me disagreeing with the general conclusions of the book and the authors. I found myself agreeing with them for the most part (and I did some outside research as well, although it seems like most of the available information comes either from Brodkorb or various people on the mother's side who were even more biased). It was the writing style, word choice, and presentation of facts that rubbed me the wrong way. And I have no idea if that was intentional or a failure in the writing. At one point, Brodkorb talks about his lack of experience in this kind of writing (although he was referring to his news articles and not this book). He was a political writer, not a crime writer, so it's quite possible that came from his inexperience with this kind of writing.

I wrote down a few examples to illustrate that point. Although individually, all small details, they're indicative of how I felt about the overall narration.

On page 88, the mother and her lawyer travel to California in order to speak with a woman who was planning to sue the state over her custody case. The authors wrote the youtube videos they filmed, showed them acting "quite foolish." (This being while the two daughters were missing.) I'm not arguing that she wasn't acting foolish, I have no idea. But that's kind of my point. Foolish is an incredibly subjective word and there was no evidence or description of the behavior. Just that broad subjective statement.

On page 161, a man associated with the mother broke into the father's garage. The narration says this man "violently vandalized his vehicles with a knife." He slashed the tires and damaged some of the interior (this was clarified at a later point in the book). I'm not saying that's not a terrifying situation for the father to be in, but why use such imprecise, inflammatory language? As a reader, I would prefer to know the facts of what happened, rather than have it sensationalized for me. And especially for this book, it didn't need to be sensationalized. The facts themselves were sensational enough.

On page 109, "Lisa had proven to Dr. Gilbertson and the court that Samantha's statements had been false." It was a court transcript of the father's attorney questioning the children's therapist in regards to abuse claims the older daughter had made. In it, she illustrates how unlikely it would be that the older son would not have noticed any abuse and that at the time of one specific instance, the father had not had much contact with her. I'm not disputing that at all. My issue is more with the word "proven." In a legal context, that is an incredibly strong word, and it didn't feel justified in this instance. Elliott showed how unlikely the abuse claim was to be true, but in my mind (after reading the transcript of the conversation provided in the book) she didn't actively prove it false.

At no point did the book ever discuss if perhaps the mother was telling the truth. Which is not to say I believe she was, but rather in true crime, there's often a point (or many points) where the narration shifts slightly to explore the guilty party's side of the story and ask 'what if they're not guilty?' It's useful for readers who come in not knowing anything about the case. It allows for the evidence to be lined up and behavior to be examined in a different way. It usually exists to illustrate the flaws in the guilty party's version of events. In this book, I never felt like we got that, which led to it feeling incredibly one sided. There were small moments of pointing out things that she said and how they were wrong, but it wasn't enough for me.

Some more minor issues- there were a fair number of typos throughout the book. Normally this wouldn't bother me and I'd be even more forgiving of an indie book, but a lot of those typos occurred in quoted sections (court transcripts, emails, etc). Obviously [sic] was used to mark intentional quoted typos, but I'm talking about seemingly accidental ones. A small thing, but one that did bother me as the book went on.

I didn't understand Mann's POV sections. It didn't feel like they contributed anything that couldn't have been included in the general narration.

I was torn between 2 and 3 stars, because of how much I really did love the way the book was told through court transcripts, but overall, I didn't feel like I trusted the authors in the telling of this story. If I don't trust the authors, I can't justify a positive rating.

[Monica Segeren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literally could have made this book 200 or so pages and it would have been a lot better. So long and unnecessary but it truly highlighted how evil of a mother she was. However, the length of divorce court was not necessary when it comes down to the daughters missing. I really don’t recommend this book and to just watch the 20/20 special

[James Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a good mystery with a twist ending for the holidays, pick it up. I was unfamiliar with the case but it's a doozy. And well written by a journalist/paralegal combo.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because it takes place in my home state of Minnesota and was surprised to find out that it takes place in a town I used to live next to and went to a year of high school there. Even so, I dont remember hearing about this true crime story. I soooo wanted to like this book. There were elements of this story that were so interesting. A former beauty queen that for some reason went off the deep end, her long-suffering husband, and a newspaper writer who followed this story and then wrote about it. This could have been so good, but the author does not realize that a good true crime story is not just newspaper articles and word for word transcripts. We know when he is using word for word transcripts because suddenly the print gets so darn small you almost need a magnifying glass to read it. I also was disappointed that the majority of the book, when not giving us word for word transcripts is telling us how crazy the mother is. I would have liked to have delved a little deeper, such as exploring why a loving wife and mother suddenly became a crazy, raving lunatic. I also would have liked to read a more personal aspect from the girl's perspective. This book is too much 'just the facts' and not enough about the emotions of the people involved. The story about the crazy lawyer was interesting and probably could be a book by itself.

[Emily Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stars? I don't think so.....

Interesting book TO START WITH. I read all the 5 star reviews,( and to my amazement, not ONE 4 star review), and I thought, "this book MUST be very good." It kept my interest for a while, actually, and then I became weary of reading court transcripts verbatim, along with the author's very very biased viewpoints . Do NOT get me wrong here. The "mother" in this nonfiction book is a very terrible and perhaps mentally ill woman. I can in NO WAY excuse her actions, or the actions of her MINIONS. That being said, there is not one single word, not ONE paragraph, written as to WHY this beauty queen wife/ mother would go to such great lengths to not only divorce her husband of over 20 years, but to attempt to take away everything he had, including all five of their children. People USUALLY don't "snap" just like that. The husband himself said he "trusted her implicitly, and signed documents she shoved under his nose WITHOUT READING THEM." That was BEYOND foolish of him. What had happened in this marriage ? What went on between these two behind closed doors? The wife had a boyfriend, was a flight attendant, very attractive, etc. No, she wasn't a soccer mom, but how could she be? He worked from home, she didn't, so he was Mr. Hockey dad. OK, fine. Anything else? They were in massive debt. Resentment, maybe? But I don't want to get off track. What she did was outstandingly wrong wrong wrong. However, when she was living with the children in the primary residence, why did the house smell like urine? Did they own a dog? And graffiti? Described, but never explained. Her abduction of the two oldest girls, aided by her disgusting "supporters" was a criminal act. Her hiding of them was worse. However , if she was working as a flight attendant at the time, why was she so difficult to locate? Questions, questions questions. I detested her main attorney; what a strange, annoying woman! But as I wrote above, the ENDLESS word for word reprints of the Family Court hearings seemed endless. I KNOW the children are where they belong now. However, this story seemed to begin with "BAM!" Husband wronged , wife is a psychopathic maniac. I would have been interested to read about the last three or four years of the marriage. SOMETHING HAD TO PRECIPITATE this awful woman's heinous actions.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story and people were fascinating but the style of writing is really bad. It is basically just court proceeding transcripts with news articles sandwiched between. I found a lot of the info very repetitive and the book didn't dig into anything deeper than facts you could easily find online.

I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it was written in a different manner and if it went deeper into interviewing or discussing the people in the story, not just transcripts and news articles.

[Sara Elder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this true crime story that happened very recently. Had I known it was a 20/20 special I could have saved some time! I understand that they wanted to tell the whole story, but there were so many recounts of ridiculous court hearings-very redundant at times.

[Books 'n' All Promotions · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Book Publicity Services for the review copy of this book. This is my unbiased review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I usually read Fiction in particular Crime Fiction although I have read True Crime in the past. However, I was unsure what to expect from this book but it wasn't anything like I was expecting.

Sandra and David have a normal family life with 5 children. They are well off financially and everything in their lives is perfect. Or so David thought. Trust fund monies go missing and Sandra is spending more money than they have coming in. She provides a solution to their problems in the form of a paper divorce. David innocently signs the papers.

From that point his life will never be the same again. He finds he is divorced in all senses of the word and accused of abusing the children he loves with all his being. What follows is a long drawn out legal battle to regain custody of his children. The day all his children returned home to David's care his 2 middle daughters go missing.

A long process to find his daughters begins with his estranged wife placing massive obstacles in the way and enlisting the help of various support groups and individuals to prevent the girls being found.

The general story is interesting however, the book contains a lot of court transcripts which I found hard going and difficult to read and digest. The large number of people involved in the case made it difficult to keep track of who was where.

It was an interesting and different read which made a change but I am not sure I would want to read anything similar again.

3.4 stars from me

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that had to be told. Very interesting, but also very tedious at times- it just dragged on at certain points.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Girls Are Gone focuses on the divorce of Sandra and David Rucki, and the disappearance of 2 of their 5 children amidst the divorce. It’s a true story that happened in Minnesota, and it’s covered by journalist Michael Brodkorb and paralegal Allison Mann. I found the case absolutely fascinating, especially as someone who initially went to school to study law. The amount on time spent reading courtroom coverage is abundant throughout The Girls Are Gone.

The beginning of the book and the end of the book pretty much sums up the entire story, while the middle is filled with court cases and some other media. A lot of the book felt repetitive, but I think that fit the nature of the case. There were so many times that the judge had to repeat things and clarify things for Sandra and her attorneys throughout the many proceedings that took place throughout this book. And while some might say there is a happy ending to this story since the girls are ultimately found and reunited with their father, the Minnesota laws prevented a harsher sentencing. For all the antics of Sandra, her attorneys, and the people that surrounded Sandra and helped hide the teenage girls they deserved much worse than they received.

I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by the authors (journalist Michael Brodkorb and paralegal Allison Mann), and I can’t say I recommend the audiobook, but it definitely helped me tackle this story for the sheer length and many pieces of the story. I guess I just struggle to understand why this needed to be as long and as detailed as it was for the story we got which is a true crime/family drama.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

True crime is something I jump into from time to time, as most of you reading this will be aware this is a genre that mostly deals with serial killers, mobsters and survivors of horrific abuse. It is not often that such a book deals with custody battles even ones that turn very nasty. So when I approached The Girls Are Gone I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Luckily for me, my family has stayed together through thick and thin, This can not be said for the Rucki family as I first started to learn there story they are already in the middle of a bitter fight over there children. It is heartbreaking to see two grown adults being reduced to the lowest base denominators. To Davids credit, he is trying to whats best for his kids a trait he continues through out the book. A lot of what he goes through comes as a complete surprise to him. This is a man that although times are tough believes everything is on the up and up. A man willing to do what he must to try and gives his kids the best life he can.



For me a lot of what happens is truly shocking, I don't have kids my self but I know that if I did there is no length I would not go to, to give them the best possible life they could. Davids wife Sandra comes across as the complete opposite. To me at least the only person she seems to truly care about is her self. This is someone who we lie and cheat to get what and where she wants. There where times while reading this book I was left shaking my head. Her sole focus was to try and hurt her husband as much as she could, with no real rhyme or reason to it. I try my best to find the best in people, but here I failed at each and every turn. As the book progresses the length with which certain people go to will make any parents heartbreak. As I got to know those who Sandra chooses to surround herself with, It becomes apparent they are just as twisted as she is. As the day's progress and the girls time spent missing stretches out these people become more and more inaugurating. I can't imagine knowing what took place and not speaking out.



This book does a great job at explaining what takes place within a courtroom with custody hearings. I have started to realize just how much of an uphill battle David was going through. Maybe it is too often that fathers are not believed. People are far too quick to believe rumors, when it comes to child abuse, be it sexual or physical. As the author was present during the events It feels like I was looking over his shoulder as he witnessed it. It comes as a difficult thing to read, families are supposed to be a loving and nurturing place to be. Sometimes I felt David was unaware of just how toxic his had become before it all blew up. Through the writing, he felt like a gentle and loving parent, but sometimes we all have our blinkers on. The book follows the events in chronological order as the days fall away, as each section is fairly short it means I could quickly build up an idea of each of the people involved. My only slight complaint is the beginning is a little heavy on the court transcripts, But this is minor as I feel this is a story that needed to be told. By the time I got to the end, my mind was racing It goes to show that the system at times is so broken. It must feel like no matter how hard you fight and how much you are on the right side you are going to lose.



When all is said and done this book opened my eyes, how can someone become such a monster and do these things? To pull apart a family and then act like you have no knowledge of it must require something to have died inside you. The final few pages are devoted to where they all are now and allows the reader to get some closure in this dark story.

[Heidi Lynn’s BookReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I want to thank Michael Brodkorb, and Allison Mann for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

The Girls are Gone is a true story of two sisters who vanished, the father who kept searching, and the adults who conspired to keep the truth hidden. Michael Brodkorb and Allison Mann both collaborated on this book together and made a fantastic team.

This book Is dedicated to the parents who never stop searching for their missing children.

Allison and Michael did an incredible job doing all the research on this case and telling it in this story. The Girls are Gone is incredibly detailed with a lot of information from the case. This book had the backstory of the couple, interviews from court, emails back and forth, explained about the rough custody battle, etc.

In the beginning of the book you get to learn about David and Sandra and how they met, fell in love, married and had a family. However, good things come to an end and unfortunately this book is written because of that. It is a very unique story. One that I was surprised I didn’t hear on the news myself.

My favorite part of the book was when the girls go missing and that aspect of the drama. That added some excitement into the book. Some of the scenes were drawn out with the legal end of things due to the custody hearings.

Throughout this book my heart was always with the kids and what they were put through in all of this. None of this was fair to them to have them play one parent over the other. So many times, I just wanted to give them a big hug.

The electronic copy I received was not formatted correctly. Many places the font size was different than the rest of the font making it smaller.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unbelievable case, and yet another example of truth reading stranger than fiction. I found the underlying story fascinating - unfortunately the format got in the way for me, hence the three stars. I prefer more narrative non fiction - this book relied heavily on direct (and lengthy) quotations from court and official documents, and I found the resultant back and forth between voices distracting. It took a toll on the story for me, particularly given the wild and involved cast of characters, settings, and scenarios. If you enjoy your non fiction presented more as a case presentation than as a narrative though, you will likely have a very different experience with the book than I did - and likely enjoy it more also.

Thanks to Book Publicity Services for my review copy.

[Tammy Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Crazy True Story

I normally prefer to watch true crime documentaries on TV instead of reading them but this was very well written. It was long and very detailed but it was easy to follow and understand. I was enthralled from the first page. And wow what a crazy story! I am so shocked that these people so brazenly lied and tried to work the system over and over! It's so hard to understand how a mother could do that to her own children.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are interested in true crime, you may want to pick up this book.

I found the drama David Rucki and his children found themselves in because of the plotting of his soon-to-be-ex-wife Sandra Grazzini-Rucki to be a tragedy that could have been avoided. How Grazzini-Rucki managed to manipulate the court system and brainwash her children in the many years her husband was separated from their children is a major failing of the courts and needs to be remedied ASAP.

The players who aided Grazzini-Rucki in hiding her two eldest daughters from their father were evil and wicked, sociopathic in the their narcissism and total inability to put themselves in the place of the girls' father and how he might feel about his daughters being missing. They had their own agendas, which (surprisingly for me) didn't involve the missing daughters. In addition, Grazzini-Rucki's behavior while her daughters were missing was totally off. If she didn't want the public to be suspicious of her, she shouldn't have been jet setting off with her boyfriend while her daughters were missing or dating an ex-cop who got his children involved in breaking and entering into her ex-husband's house.

I was astounded how a catastrophe like this could have even happened. The only part that didn't seem to be resolved (other than scanty jail time) was that we never heard from the two eldest daughters. Did they feel any regret about how they hurt their father during this whole time? They came off as entitled brats and were still seemingly loyal to their mother, who hadn't sought contact with them once after she dropped them off on the ranch and then went to live her life, seemingly without ever thinking of them again, other than as pawns to hurt her ex.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime and books written by investigative reporters.

[Carla (Carla's Book Bits) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was given to me by Book Publicity Services in exchange for an honest review.

I want true crime to be my shit. I really do. This case in particular, about the 2 eldest Rucki daughters who up and disappear for over 2 years is a pretty crazy one. The book opens with a bang, detailing the crazy court fight following a brutal divorce. You guys. I had no idea family court was this crazy. We follow court transcripts of this fight for the first half of the book, which culminates in the disappearance of the two Rucki girls.

The first part is where I was loving it. Everything was crazy and detailed. But immediately following the disappearance of the girls, the book took a leap into the future. This is where it became hard going for me. All of a sudden, the mother of the daughters is gone, and the girls have been missing for 2 years. There was no proper transition, no explanation as to how we got 2 years ahead with such little information.

One of the authors also explains the events happening to him day-to-day in terms of this case, as well as inserts of his articles reporting on said events. I struggled hard to see the point of doing that, since the articles were just a reiteration of everything he just described anyway. Unfortunately, after this point, the book lost me. Because it felt more like a slog, I had a hard time connecting emotionally, unlike the riveting first part.

This book started with a bang, but it ended with a fizzle. However, I'm glad I read this. It encouraged me to look into the case more. And even though the second half was slow going, the writing is easy to follow, making it a quicker read than I expected. Read this if you want an interesting, crazy, albeit not as impartial as it tries to be account of this case!

[Nikki Hendrikson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am from MN and was interested in this book as it takes place in MN. I typically enjoy true crime stories that really focus on the victim's experience, with the court proceedings as an informative addition. This book focuses heavily on the court proceedings, at times including court transcripts. For work, I deal with court proceedings often and would say I am versed in the functions of court. That being said, I got about 25% through this book and grew bored with reading transcripts. If you have no previous knowledge of court proceedings, I can't imagine it would hold your attention for very long. If you're looking for a captivating story, this is not it. If you are looking for a book that is realistic in how messy divorce court can get, this would be informative. It is well researched and thorough. Therefore, I am giving it more than 1 star.

[Jill Rivenburg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thankful that is over and generously giving 2 stars. I powered through to finish this book only because I was interested in the story. I fought the temptation to just google it to spare myself. If you find yourself in the same position, I suggest that option! The story of the Rucki family is sad and maddening all at the same time. The writing of this book is just as maddening. Overflowing with court records and redundant news articles, and riddled with grammatical errors and missing words, this was drawn out beyond necessity.

[Jennifer Bauer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so tedious and almost all it was reprints of court files and court discussions with no added info. I just wanted the story to move forward faster and I had zero interest because of how slow it went. I felt like the first ten percent of the book could have been summed up in a paragraph. Yikes! No thanks!

[Jess Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. It was interesting but super draggy and the court transcripts (a lot of the book) were hard to read.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very hard to read but informative and well researched.

[Carla bookaholic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but just not my thing

[Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The girls are gone" follows the true story of the Rucki Family, and two of five children who disappeared on April 19th, 2013, in the midst of their parents divorce. The book starts at 4-- days gone, with David Rucki, the father, going through boxes of his missing daughters' stuff and you can tell he is emotional and distraught straight away by the whole process.
The book goes on to describe the Rucki family and gives a background on who they are, how they all get along and their community they live in. It describes the debt the Rucki's are in as money is disappearing from their trust fund and they have had legal battles with Sandra's family that they were desperately trying to escape. Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, David's wife goes to speak with a friend of her's who is an attorney, and she tells David that he suggested they get a divorce in order to get themselves out of the debt left by Sandra's family. But the divorce- according to Sandra, would be all on paper, so though they would be legally divorced, they would still live together as Husband and Wife and nothing would change. However, this all changes when David is served with divorce papers and a DVO on him by Sandra, forcing him to leave the house without any explanation from Sandra. He had signed the divorce papers without reading any of it, trusting Sandra because they had been married for over 20 years. However, she had used his trust against him, taking away pretty well everything he owned, including his children.
The book is set in chronological order, beginning from day 1 and goes on to include court transcripts, in detail, and a lot of them. They are at first the family court trials, over the custody of the children, then turning to the criminal trial of Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and the people involved. Sandra makes false claims of emotional and physical abuse within the household by David against herself and the kids, and ultimately manipulates the children into thinking their father was a terrible man and implanting false memories in their heads.
She makes the children scared of their dad, making it difficult for the family to undertake reunification therapy. Sandra also does not co-operate with court procedures, and her attorney, Michelle MacDonald is basically a nutter who does everything she can to delay and hinder the court hearings. The two eldest girls of the Rucki family, Samantha and Gianna run away when they are placed under the care of David's sister, Tammy during the custody battle and are deemed missing. The book follows everyone involved in the case, documenting each day of their disappearance and the court hearings following this. The authors, Michael Brodkorb- a journalist who documents the case in great detail and assists in the search to find the girls, and Alison Mann, who worked at the law firm representing David Rucki and the case since 2012, did an excellent job at detailing the entire case from the trials to the thoughts and emotions of David Rucki as he searched for his missing children. As the investigation intensified, Sandra denied any involvement or knowledge of the whereabouts of the girls but it is believed these are just more lies she is telling the court. As the years begin to draw out with no sign of the girls, David is desperate to find them, whilst Sandra is taking holidays with her new boyfriend. Eventually it is confirmed what we knew all along- that Sandra and her minions were concealing the girls in a bid to hurt David. It is incredibly cruel and shocking that so many people were involved in the disappearance and hiding of the girls and that they showed no remorse or shame for their part in it. In fact, they treated it like a joke and behaved inappropriately and childish throughout court hearings, none of them cared about the lives they were taking away from the girls or the people who were hurting in the process.
It became clear throughout the book that Sandra Grazzini-Rucki was an extremely self-centred, narcissistic diva who grew up rich and spoiled by her family, never facing any consequences for her actions. I cannot even find any justifiable means as to why she did what she did except that she must be a very mentally-ill individual with a skewed sense of reason and motives. This book definitely makes you lose faith in the justice system as the outcome is disappointing and definitely not sufficient for the crimes committed by Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and the people involved with her.
Overall, I think if you were really interested in the justice and court system, or even law in general, you would love this book because it does go very in depth with the hearings and there is a lot of legal jargon throughout. It wasn't hard to follow though and everything was very relevant and interesting. I would definitely recommend this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and there were many times I couldn't put it down. The only con I have is that the court proceedings throughout the book are quite extensive, they do take up quite a bit of the book and at times it can be a little drawn out. For me though, it wasn't to the point where I got bored or uninterested, I think as a whole the book is definitely worth the read, especially when everything comes together and you find out the twist toward the end.
I still can't believe this was a real life case with everything that happened. Thank you to the authors and to Kelsey for sending me this book to read and review, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Kasia Strehle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to thank Book Publicity Services for giving me this review copy.
I read and watch and listen to a LOT of true crime. Out of all the true crime I've read I have never seen a case about a custody battle gone so wrong. Written by a stellar paralegal/journalist combo this book delves into a type of true crime that you rarely see. I don't have kids but I couldn't imagine putting kids through what happened to them in this case.

David Rucki, the father, isn't perfect yet his one defining trait is that he wants the best for his children. He's not perfect and he definitely was a little blind to some perhaps more toxic traits but this doesn't mean he is a bad father. This can not be said for Sandra, the mother, who seems to only care about herself and how people perceive her to be. Even if you are someone who tried to their best to find the good in people it's hard to see any good in Sandra who will do anything to hurt her ex-husband and "win" at all costs.

This book does an excellent job at explaining what actually happens in a courtroom, hint it's not like the tv portrays at times. Another excellent job the book does is by showing how quick people are to believe rumors over a father in a custody battle, refusing to let the court/authorities do their job. I feel like such a good job is done with this since both authors were present for the entire legal battle and case. We the readers are looking over their shoulders as the case unfolds, catching a glimpse of something that we never would have heard about if not for Michael Brodkorb and Allison Mann. And honestly, this case needs to be talked about more. Everyone should read/talk about this case because we can all learn from it, we can't have history repeat itself with another family torn apart at all costs just so the other can win.

The ONLY thing, the one thing, I would want to fix is that the start of the book is a bit heavy on the court transcripts. While I loved that the court transcripts were included, it reads more of a standard this is what actually happened/was said, it was a bit hard to read for large chunks when someone isn't used to large amounts of legal or court documents. I also think that a list of who is who and what their major role in the case because it was a bit hard to keep track of everyone and what their involvement was; having a list to go back to would have been really nice. In all I think this was a solid read for anyone who enjoys true crime, a case with a good ending, and cases involving custody disputes.