Details of Saddam Hussein's final days revealed in new book

A new book written by former Army infantry officer Will Bardenwerper is shedding light on Saddam Hussein's mysterious final months before his 2006 execution.

In "The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid," Bardenwerper reveals how the infamous tyrant spent his last waking moments -- and it may surprise you.

According to the soldier, Hussein was a huge fan of R&B singer Mary J. Blige, and would spend hours listening to her soulful music on the radio.

"He'd always stop tuning if he stumbled across a Mary J. Blige song," the book claims.

The novel also says that Hussein had a laugh like "that Dracula dude from Sesame Street," and loved tending to a scrappy piece of dirt at the corner of his outdoor space, watering the weeds as if they were "more like beautiful flowers than the ugly growths they were."

The war criminal also apparently loved sweets, and would "yield to the siren call of a sugary muffin the way anyone else might."

Bardenwerper interviewed several members of the 12-person squad, whose job it was to protect Hussein, for his novel, which is full of surprising anecdotes from guards who say Hussein was actually nice to them.

In fact, Bardenwerper even claims that the American soldiers came to view the dictator as a sort of "grandfather-like figure" while guarding him, and even mourned his death after he was hanged.

Pick up a copy here: