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

Narrated 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.

©2018 Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann (P)2019 Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann

full of surprises

I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to my friends who enjoy true crime stories. It's about a couple whose 2 daughters go missing and for almost 3 years there was a struggle/fight, to find those girls. as much as I enjoyed the story, I strongly recommend getting different readers. these people were terrible! Reading so fast that their words became a jumbled mess! It sounded like they were chewing a huge wad of gum at least part of the time. so many mispronounced words that I had to figure out what was said. one of the readers even apologized, several times, so he knew he wasn't reading well.

Compelling story; mediocre narration

Riveting, compelling true story that is let down by narration that is rushed, delivered with scant emotion, and marred by repeated sentences and do-overs. Was there even an editor for this project? I can’t believe that the producers let this be produced as it is.

Riveting

I’ve listened multiple times and will listen again!
It’s amazing how some reviews are so prejudiced but don’t let ignorance stop you from reading a great book.

Interesting Story not great audio

I appreciate the authors reading their own book, but in this case I believe this could've benefited from a professional voice artist and some editing. That being said, the story was compelling enough to keep me hooked till the end. The wife's campaign to disrupt justice and keep a father from his children was deplorable. The attorneys that went along with and supported this campaign should be disbarred for obstruction, but surprisingly (or not) one of them is actually aiming for a supreme court position!

Intriguing story, but ...

These authors are well outside their wheelhouse with both the story and the self- narration. An otherwise intriguing true story is presented as a towering mess of slurred rapid reading aloud of an excruciating level of court record detail. There is little in the way of character development outside of those court documents. The authors don't seem to be familiar with the standards of most true crime reporting, and do admit that this is not their area of expertise.

Without sharing any spoilers, the real point of this book is exposing the activism and activists (by name) who are interfering with certain cases in the family law courts of Minnesota . It’s an expose' of the lengths that some of the activists will go to to disrupt and change the trajectory of how family law is administered.

This book is driven by the emotional and political involvement of the authors, as they readily admit. The authors make no secret of their bias, and occasionally even characterize people they don’t like as “cowardly “, conniving and indifferent to the minor children. They make a strong case for their bias, but of course any reader not familiar with the case has to consider if there is more to know than is presented in this book.

As someone who knew nothing about these issues or this case beforehand, this book is a troubling look at how families can be torn apart by the agenda-driven behavior of adults who should be more concerned about the welfare of the children involved.

The narration by the authors is nothing but a flat-toned, slurred, rapid reading aloud. It is often hard to follow and sometimes hard to understand. Most of the names are hard to distinguish, and there are more and more names as the book continues. The narration is not up to professional standard, and not at all what I expect from an Audible book.

Great plot line, dry reading

I completely devoured this book. The twists and turns of this case were incredible and unbelievable. The amount of harm and selfish acts this mother put the rest of her family through, seemingly out of the blue and for no reason that anyone can understand was heartbreaking, and terrifying. The fact that this journalist and lawyer came together and were able to really put the focus on to this case that needed to be put forth without exploiting the family was incredible and meaningful. You can just tell that between these two authors they were affected by this case as much as those involved in it. And in some cases they actually did get pulled into it more than you would expect and even at some point put their own lives at risk for these children.

Gripping Story of Total Selfishness

Excellent storyline - heartbreaking story of an extremely self-centered parent that eventually lost her mind!Badly performed- too monotone, no feeling or inflection!!

Kept me coming back for more

Very interesting story. The authors did an amazing job of explaining legal rights and the way the people who try to twist the truth to their own lies. I actually learned a lot!

Great reporting

Having been a family law paralegal for years this is more common than should ever happen. Our family law system fails often but what the mother did in this case was beyond extreme and kudos to the father for his resolve to keep fighting many don’t. Well written and easy to listen to on audio book.

Incredible history

Good job on the truth . Respectful. Lot’s of trial information and evidences. Coudn’t stop listening.