CHICAGO, IL, September 11, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- National Bestselling Author William Elliott Hazelgrove brings readers a powerful true story of adventure, idealism, and violent tragedy in his new book, Evil on the Roof of the World (releasing November 13, 2025). Much like Jon Krakauer's landmark Into the Wild, Hazelgrove's book explores the perilous intersection of youthful idealism and the unforgiving realities of the world. Doug Kari author of The Berman Murders writes, "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."

In July 2018, two young Americans, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, graduates of Georgetown University, set out on a global cycling journey in search of a different kind of American Dream. Their odyssey, filled with hope, freedom, and an embrace of humanity, tragically ended on the high mountain highway in Tajikistan known as "the roof of the world," where they and two fellow cyclists were brutally murdered by ISIS terrorists.

Hazelgrove's Evil on the Roof of the World reconstructs their journey and final days with the same haunting power that Krakauer brought to the story of Chris McCandless. Where Into the Wild asked what drives a young man to test himself against nature, Hazelgrove asks: What drives young men and women to test themselves against the world itself—and what dangers lie hidden in that search for truth and connection?

With meticulous research and narrative drive, Hazelgrove delivers a deeply human story of hope colliding with evil. Like Krakauer, he probes questions of freedom, risk, and the pursuit of meaning, while bringing readers face to face with the fragility of idealism in a fractured world.

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 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, 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.

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