The Girls Are Gone by Michael Brodkorb
Available from Amazon UK
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.
My Review
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
