Doc Savage meets his most merciless adversary -- VAR, the faceless fiend whose strange voice announces a terrible mandate of destruction! VAR, who wields the deadly Cold Light, and dares hurl the ultimate challenge at Doc and his mighty crew -- A fight to the death with the world at stake!

Either Donovan was a purposely obtuse author or Bantam butchered the editing of this story when it reissued it. Like 'Mad Eyes', some plot elements seem to be misplaced. But, ALSO like 'Mad Eyes', I love the "dark" flavor of the story as a change of pace.

One of the best Bantam covers but not one of the best stories. Not that it's bad. Var is a great villain and the Cold Light is very cool (sorry). And the opening seen with the stranger slipping the cryptic note into Doc's pocket is one of the better Doc moments.
And the book does feature one of the best last couple of lines in the series. Like I said, not a bad Doc at all. Definitely slightly above average.

"Cold Death" is a novel that has some well-done scenes and a number of cool ideas, but the novel as a whole comes across as flawed. Which is pretty much typical of a Donovan novel. There are memorable characters here, including the main villian and his super-weapon. Of course, as in just about any non-Dent Doc book, there are going to be a few scenes that seriously challenge the reader's suspension of disbelief. One of the worst occurs near the end of chap. 10. Monk, flying above in a plane, spots from the air the house where he knows Ham is being held prisoner. He then comes to Ham's rescue by CRASHING THE PLANE INTO THE HOUSE! Catapulted from the wrecked cockpit, Monk comes to his feet none the worse for wear and ready to fight! I mean, COME ON!
And while the conclusion of the story is satisfyingly spectacular in the tradition of the best Docs, a few unanswered questions remain. For instance, did they ever explain how Var was able to create the effect of his voice? If they did, I missed it. Maybe he was a ventriloquist as skilled as Doc or Monk.
According to the credits, Laurence Donovan is one of two ghostwriters (along with Hathaway) who never had a novel revised by Dent. I wonder if there was something in his contract which stipulated this? This one sure could have used some rewriting.

When I was 16 I read this book and had the suspicion that it was either written from a Dent outline or ghosted altogether. I had found it "choppy" and in some places implausible. But, for a sixteen year-old, Cold Death was a good read for the winter afternoon. I wouldn't rank it high on any list and I thought the Bantam cover was really mediocre--the blue light looks just like ordinary clouds, even though Bama captures the train really well. The pulp cover is really great; one of the best Doc covers ever.

Although it's true that "Cold Death" is probably the least awful of the eight novels Donovan ghosted for the Doc series, I still wouldn't recommend it. The author never could duplicate the confident rhythm and flow of Dent's dialogue and action sequences. And as in most Donovan stories, the nature of the villain's invincible weapon is never fully explained. (In this case, the power of the Cold Light is attributed to "a powerful and unknown undersea element." Yeah, right.)
But worst of all, the identity and motives of the main villain in "Cold Death" are completely illogical. What does this guy hope to accomplish by blowing everything up? Dent's villains always had a goal that folded perfectly into the story. Var seems to be a villain simply because the plot needed one.

Lame book. Think I'll spend the weekend rereading "The Lost Oasis."