#the rogue reader

While serving as a squad leader in Iraq, Dunham and his squad were sent to investigate cars near the scene of an attack. After the squad discovered weapons in one of the cars, the driver left the vehicle and began attacking the squad. Dunham engaged the driver in hand-to-hand combat, but the driver dropped an armed grenade in the process. Without regard for his own life, Dunham threw himself onto the grenade and attempted to use his combat helmet to shield himself and his men. Dunham was severely injured from the explosion and was brought back to the U.S., where he was diagnosed with brain damage and deemed unlikely to recover. He was taken off of life support 8 days later. Because of his heroic actions, he was awarded a Purple Heart shortly before he died and a Medal of Honor posthumously. He was 22 years old.

On this day in Rogue History, Thomas Harris, author of the Hannibal Lecter novels, was born in 1940. Harris started his writing career during college, when he wrote stories for the local newspaper. This led him to getting a job in New York City working for the Associated Press. He began work on his first novel, Black Sunday, in 1974, and it was published in 1975. It remains his only published novel not part of the Hannibal Lecter series. The character of Hannibal Lecter, literature's most infamous cannibalistic serial killer, was first introduced in the 1981 novel Red Dragon, which was adapted to film as Manhunter in 1986. However, Hannibal Lecter's immediate rise to fame came after the 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs was adapted to film with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. The next Hannibal Lecter novels, 1999's Hannibal and 2006's Hannibal Rising, were also adapted to film, with Anthony Hopkins reprising his role. Thank you, Thomas Harris, for giving us one of the greatest villains ever in crime fiction!

Great review of Mark T. Conard's Dark as Night from 60 Second Book Reviews.

Tequila pistol?... YES, PLEASE!

Book trailer for Dark City Blue by Luke Preston. Definitely need to check this one out!

On this day in Rogue History, the first of the Greensboro sit-ins was staged in 1960. Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. (later known as Jibreel Khazan), and David Richmond, four freshman students at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at the "whites only" lunch counter inside of a Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC. The staff refused to serve them, but the Greensboro Four (as they became known) stayed put until the store closed. They returned with about 20 other protesters the next day, over 60 on the third day, and over 300 on the fourth. The sit-in sparked a series of sit-ins and boycotts of Woolworth's locations and other stores with segregated lunch counters. On July 25 of that same year, the Greensboro Woolworth's abandoned their segregation policies, with the rest of the store chain following suit the next day. A monumental win in the African-American Civil Rights Movement -- thanks, Greensboro Four!

Check out his novel, The Ring Road!