Description: In 2017, Jay Austen and Lauren Geoghegan quit their well-paying Washington jobs to pursue a different American Dream-a bike trip around the world. On July 29, 2018, were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists.
Brief description: William Elliott Hazelgrove is the national bestselling author of ten novels and fourteen narrative nonfiction titles, including Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024), Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024), and Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair: The End of the Gangster Era in Chicago (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). His books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editor's Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections, and optioned for movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, Daily Mail, and other publications, and has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CSPAN, and USA Today have all covered his books with features. More information can be found at www.williamhazelgrove.com.
Review Quotes:
"Through interviews with friends and the cyclists' own trip writings, Hazelgrove presents a generous picture of a couple in search of something bigger than the everyday, who became victims of an ideological war." --Booklist
"Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian, letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward ...The approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast." --Publishers Weekly "Lauren and Jay chased wonder on two wheels across continents, only to meet evil face-to-face. Evil on the Roof of the World is a sobering, gut-punch reminder that even the boldest dreams aren't safe from the darkness we pretend doesn't exist." --Cory Mortensen, bestselling author of The Buddha and the Bee "A compelling investigation of both the liberating triumph and ultimate tragedy of Lauren and Jay's cycle adventure. Evil on the Roof of the World sensitively explores the open-heartedness, courage, and complicated motivations of two promising twenty-somethings and poses profound questions about the world we live in and the nature of risk and reward." --Charlie Walker, award-winning British explorer, author of Through Sand & Snow and On Roads That Echo, and keynote speaker "Propelled by idealism and determination, Jay and Lauren set out to cycle around the world. Believing in the essential goodness of humanity, the couple find kindness and hospitality while slogging through desert sand in Namibia, fleeing an enraged elephant in Botswana, and enduring freezing rain in Spain. William Elliott Hazelgrove's gripping account, reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, chronicles Jay and Lauren's epic journey toward an encounter with terrorists who decide that slaughtering these youthful seekers will serve ISIS's cause." --Doug Kari, author of The Berman Murders