Rave Publishers Weekly Review of Evil on the Roof of the World

Novelist and historian Hazelgrove (Hemingway's Attic) recounts the fate of American cyclists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, who were slain by terrorists in Tajikistan in 2018, in this chilling true crime tale. Drawing from the couple's blog and interviews with their friends and family, Hazelgrove portrays Jay as a charismatic idealist who convinced Lauren to give up her job to follow him on a four-year bike trip around the globe, beginning in South Africa and ending in South America. In Africa, they faced charging elephants, flies, and malaria; in Europe, they dealt with suspicious officials and a few gnarly crashes. Still, they pushed forward for two years, winding up in Central Asia's Pamir Mountains (nicknamed the "Roof of the World"). In Tajikistan, a group of young men radicalized by ISIS stalked and ambushed the couple after encountering them on a highway; four were then killed by local police, while the ringleader died in an American prison. Hazelgrove's prose is utilitarian ("Jay and Lauren ride on into Botswana, which proves to be flat, arid, wild, and hot"), letting the facts of the case carry the narrative forward. For the most part, the approach pays off, lending the account an unsettling air. Readers will be aghast. Photos. (Nov.)

Bloomsbury to Pulblish William Elliott Hazelgrove's Gripping New Nonfiction of Cycling Couple Murdered by ISIS

CHICAGO, IL, August 29, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On November 13, 2025, Bloomsbury Publishing will release Evil on the Roof of the World, the latest book from acclaimed author William Elliott Hazelgrove. This harrowing true account follows the journey of two young American dreamers whose search for adventure ended in tragedy on one of the most remote highways in the world. On a bleak stretch of road in the mountains of Tajikistan, known as "the roof of the world," in July 2018, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin—along with two other cyclists—were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists. Both Georgetown University graduates, Lauren and Jay had left behind promising careers in Washington, DC, to pursue a bold vision of the American Dream: biking around the globe in search of connection, beauty, and meaning. Drawing from their Simply Cycling travel blog, social media posts, intimate interviews with friends and family, and worldwide media coverage of the murder, Hazelgrove reconstructs the arc of their story. From hopeful beginnings to the challenges and triumphs on the road, from the haunting foreshadowing of danger to the devastating attack itself, Evil on the Roof of the World presents a deeply human narrative of love, adventure, and vulnerability in the face of extremism. "This book is about more than a single act of violence," Hazelgrove says. "It's about what it means to chase a dream into the unknown—and how that dream collided with the darkest forces of our time." Like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Hazelgrove's book explores the intersection of youthful idealism, risk, and fate. Blending travel adventure with true crime, it offers a sensitive yet unflinching look at how Jay and Lauren lived, what they hoped to find, and how the world made sense of their loss. William Elliott Hazelgrove is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction. Known for his fast-paced narrative style and deeply researched storytelling, Hazelgrove's work often explores the intersection of history, culture, and the human spirit. His nonfiction titles include Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson, Sally Rand: American Sex Symbol, Greed in America: The Real Story of Our Century, and Evil on the Roof of the World (Bloomsbury, 2025). His fiction works include the bestselling novel The Pitcher, along with Tobacco Sticks, Real Santa, and Rocket Man. Hazelgrove's books have been widely reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, People, Chicago Tribune, and on NPR's All Things Considered. He has appeared on NBC, CBS, PBS, and C-SPAN, and his works have been optioned for film and television. A Chicago native, Hazelgrove was formerly the Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace, where he worked in Hemingway's attic writing studio. His writing has earned critical acclaim for blending historical depth with the compelling drive of fiction, often compared to the works of Erik Larson and Jon Krakauer.

Is the World too Dangerous to Travel Now?

My book Evil on the Roof of the World is about Jay Austin and Lauren Geohegan who decided to travel around the world in 2017. They quit their jobs and for a year planned their trip. They checked the State Department travel advistories that said the places they were planning to bike thorugh were safe. They paid close attention to the advisory on Tajikistan which borderes Afghanistan. Still the State Department advisory said it was safe. So they biked through Africa and Europe and had a few problems but nothing life threatening. Lauren felt that New York City was just as dangerous or more so than Tajikistan. When they entered the Pamir Mountains known also as The Roof of the World they were excited. This scenic route through the clouds was a the high point of their trip and again when they checked the State Department site there were no new warnings. On July 29 2018 they were spotted by ISIS terrorists who followed the couple then mowed them down with their car and attacked with butcher knives. When I was researching the book with friends and family I asked many times if Jay and Lauren were concerned about the risks of their trip. Jay blogged about the risks before they left saying without risk there is no adventure. When they stopped and stared across a river at Afghanistan Lauren expressed her fear to a fellow cyclist,Kim Potsma. She was scared but they had been biking a full year and while they had some dangerous encounters they had managed to stay on course and nothing had really threatened their lives. But now they had been killed at the hands of ISIS and social media went wild on how foolish, stupid, and arrogant these two millenials were to belive they could bike anywhere they wanted in the world. Many people took offence and saw the two Georgetown Graduates as emblematic of an entitled generation that felt the rules did not apply to them. Some people who posted were gleefully cruel. The Washington Post examined Lauren and Jays decision to bike through Afghanistan and asked the question if they were niave in their view of the world. Jay had famously said he did not belive in evil as a concept. Many in the blogosphere roasted him for this assertion. The Post concluded they were not niave and knew the risks and had taken all precautions. Their deaths were a large part due to bad luck. Destiny is a lonely word and to say they were destined to meet up with terrorists is a hard thing to get our heads around. I go back to Jays assertion that without risk there is no adventure. The State Department after the attack elevated the risk level on Tajikistan. Still, thousands of people bike the Pamir highway every year. It is a great adventure. Evil on the Roof of the World is due out in November

The Millenial Who Didnt Buy into the Thirty Year Grind

I read Jay and Lauren’s story in the New York Times in 2018, shortly after it happened. I was intrigued. Not so much by the horrifying way they died, but the crashing together of different cultures on a deserted mountain highway in Tajikistan. I was also intrigued by what motivated Jay and Lauren to leave well-paying Washington jobs and take the road less traveled. After writing a proposal for the publisher and digging into some research, I found Jay’s declaration that “he didn’t want to waste his years in front of a small rectangular screen at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, retire at sixty-five, and then die ten years later.”1 This resonated with me; it fit in with Americans who have thrown a conventional life aside to pursue a life less certain. Jay and Lauren’s desire for adventure or a different American dream fits the pantheon of people looking for something beyond the safe confines of a world without risk. American history is littered with adventurers, from Amelia Earhart’s daring aerial exploration to Teddy Roosevelt heading West to the Badlands, to Jack London’s famous trek into the Yukon, to Mark Twain lighting out for the territories, to Thomas Stevens, who in 1887 biked around the world on a big wheel bicycle, all the way back to Thoreau, and up to the present day of Chris McCandless’s journey into the wilds of Alaska.

Early Reviews for Evil on the Roof of the World Compare to Krakauer Into The Wild

“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

A Couple Who Wanted a Different American Dream....Evil on the Roof of the World

On a bleak highway in the mountains of Tajikistan known as "the roof of the world", in July of 2018, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin along with two other cyclists, were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists. They were both Georgetown University graduates who had quit their well-paying Washington, D.C. jobs to pursue a bike trip around the world, looking for a different kind of American Dream. Pieced together from Jay and Lauren's Simply Cycling travel blog and social media posts, interviews with their friends and family, and media coverage of their murder, author William Elliott Hazelgrove creates a complete, narrative retelling of Jay and Lauren's story. Evil on the Roof of the World combines biking and travel adventure with true crime elements, sensitively presenting the trajectory of Jay and Lauren's hopeful beginnings; the difficulties and meaningful experiences they found on their journey; the foreshadowing leading up to the attack; and the way they, their loved ones, the media, and the perpetrators made sense of this violent encounter. Like Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild, this is a story of a couple who went off the grid to find the great adventure of life.

The Great Dissatisfacton

It’s terrible, isn’t it? Everyone has gotten older. All these white males are so dissatisfied. Angus of AC DC looks like a grandfather. Robert DeNiro can barely walk. People die daily from heart attacks or prostate cancer. Still the white males plod on. The ones that are still walking and they dream still of being rock stars or professional baseball players or influencers or great filmmakers. The dreamers now haunted by that Supertramp line, when you look through the years at what you could have been what you might have if you had more time. And now they are out of time. And they have money. They would be considered successful by the old yardstick of being able to retire. But in their eyes, in their daily musings they are failures. They all have the great dissatisfaction of not being rich and famous. It is an epidemic. Brought up on rock stars and professional athletes and movie stars the young males form the suburbs dream of being president tone day. But that didn’t happen either. And most never took their shot when they could have. They opted for the job and the money and thought they might become famous on the side. A good hobby becoming famous. Something to do in retirement. But then they hit their sixties and now they realize it is the hardest thing in the world to become famous. It is impossible and to make matters worse the clock ticks on. And they cannot appreciate what they have because in our culture hope I die before I get old was a mantra as Roger Daltry crooned forty years ago then got old and is now pushing eighty. Mick is eighty-two. But they are famous. They are rich. So, the old white males have their dinners, have their drinks, and still think maybe…maybe I can pull it off. Maybe I can upload a song, a video, shoot a movie, write a book and I will be famous then and then I will be happy. But it is a mirage. So, they go to therapy. Take their antidepressants. Get stoned. Get drunk on one to two drinks. And instead of enjoying the time left to them they watch clips of old rock concerts on their phone when the youth culture had its heyday and everything was possible and listen to that song one more time… taunting them with who they might have been… what they could have been…if they had more time.