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, DC, 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 only to have it end in tragedy.

William Elliott Hazelgrove is the National Bestselling author of ten novels and twelve narrative nonfiction titles. His books have been optioned for the movies and have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editor's Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, 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. His books Tobacco Sticks, The Pitcher, Real Santa, and Madam President have been optioned for screen and television rights. Henry Knox's Noble Train was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by The Colonial Society of America. His latest publications include Morristown: The Kidnapping of George Washington, The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick, One Hundred and Sixty Minutes, and The Race to Save the Titanic. He is also the author of Dead Air: The Night Orson Welles Terrified America and Hemingway's Attic: Hell and Glory in Cuba.

Preface
Author's Note
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Pamir Highway, The Roof of the World, July 29, 2018
Chapter 1: Getting Ready, Washington, D.C., May 2017
Part I: Africa
Chapter 2: South Africa, June 9, 2017
Chapter 3: Georgetown, 2012
Chapter 4: Miles from Nowhere, 1977
Chapter 5: Namibia, The Great Karoo Desert, July 2017
Chapter 6: Botswana, August 2017
Chapter 7: The Under Five Gang, 2015
Chapter 8: Zambia, September 2017
Chapter 9: The Georgetown Gang, 2025
Chapter 10: Tanzania, November 2017
Part II: Europe
Chapter 11: The Tiny House, 2012
Chapter 12: Spain, December 2017
Chapter 13: Into the Wild, 1992
Chapter 14: Valencia, Spain, January 2018
Chapter 15: The New York Bicycle Murders, 2017
Chapter 16: France, February 2018
Chapter 17: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1871
Chapter 18: Croatia and Montenegro, April 2018
Chapter 19: Wild, 1995
Chapter 20: On the Road to Kazakhstan, May 2018
Part III: Central Asia
Chapter 21: Selga, Khatlong Province, Tajikistan, 1985
Chapter 22: Kazakhstan, June 2018
Chapter 23: The Pamirs, "The Roof of the World," July 17, 2018
Chapter 24: The Lost City of Z, 1925
Chapter 25: Sixty Miles to Dushanbe, July 28, 2018
Chapter 26: Collision, July 29, 2018
Chapter 27: The Aftermath, July 29, 2018
Part IV: Home
Chapter 28: United States, July 30, 2018
Chapter 29: Evil on the Roof of the World
Chapter 30: Endings
Chapter 31: The Walden Pondo Coffee House
About the Author
Appendix
Bibliography
Index