The science is settled! Reading Henry Brown's fiction has been found to increase both IQ and testosterone. Men may notice growth in bicep diameter, intellectual capacity, and cravings for red meat. But not to worry, ladies—it won't put hair on your chest! Experts say it can tone your thighs, trim your waistline, and make you irresistible to your husband, boyfriend, employer, or favorite celebrity.

Take for instance Hell and Gone, the first guns-blazing paramilitary thriller in the Retreads series: you might just get the urge to detonate some C-4 as you ride along with a "Dirty Dozen" squad of SpecOps veterans kicking the living Shiite out of terrorists and the Sudanese Army, for control of a stolen tactical nuke. Not since Able Team and Phoenix Force have you found full-auto fiction more fitting to read while humping an 80 pound rucksack over desert dunes. It's better than playing Call of Duty—and without the thumb cramps!

Meet your heavily armed escort for this desperate mission:

+ Dwight "Rocco" Cavarra, the former SEAL Team commander hand-picked by the Agency to lead this grabasstic gaggle (soon to be infamous as Rocco's Retreads).

+ Tommy Scarred-Wolf, once a "sneaky Pete" Weapons Sergeant on a Special Forces A-Team.

+ Jake McCallum… The bigger they are, the harder they fall? This SF Engineer proves the bigger they are, the harder they hit.

+ Leon "Cannonball" Campbell, the unflappable sniper as old-school as an M-21 spitting 7.62 NATO.

+ Carlos Bojado, the Force Recon vet who left the Corps to find a war.

+ Plus more shooters just slopping over with badassery, bringing smoke and taking names like the late, great Carl Weathers hopped-up on Red Bull, armed with a minigun, and jealous of Arnold Schwarzenegger's bicep diameter. (Arnie cheated by reading Hell and Gone, just so you know.)

In Amazon's review thread, you'll find genre heavyweights like Jack Silkstone, Jim Morris, Jack Murphy, Peter Nealen and Jack Badelaire, who all recommend Hell and Gone as an action novel that slaps like Will Smith at an award ceremony.

Lock & load your very own copy for the Kindle or other E-Reader, or in paperback (just wash the blood and cordite off your hands first, ya savage).