The Frosted Death - Avenger, Bk 5 Author:Kenneth Robeson A fine, white powder like snow settles on one human body and a plague of death is alive in the world's greatest city. — The Sangaman-Veshnir drug company has discovered a fast-growing mold that grows on meat, covering the victim with a powdered sugar-like coating: "The Frosted Death". Growing into the skin pores and lungs, it causes death by suff... more »ocation, and cannot be killed by conventional means; a speck on the skin causes death in a short time. Kindly-seeming, thoroughly evil Veshnir murders to keep the mold secret: he has a deal with Germany to mass produce it as a weapon of war. A submarine of Nazis has infiltrated to support this effort. At his secret estate in Maine, Veshnir has set up a production facility, using dying men enslaved by blowing some mold into their brains. Benson quickly contains outbreaks of the mold, and uses detective work to identify the source. Mac works feverishly, develops an antidote. Mac and Josh are captured. Josh secretly infects Veshnir with the mold. Benson poses as one of the Nazi agents and uses the antidote to save Josh and Mac. Veshnir's production facility is destroyed. The Nazis will return to Germany and likely death.
A personal tragedy, the loss of his family and all facial expression and coloration due to shock and nerve damage, left Richard Benson swearing vengeance on the underworld. Justice Inc., his quirky crime fighting crew, included a petite young woman (Nellie), a mountain engineer (Smitty), a scottish chemical expert (Mac) and a married black couple (Josh and Rosabel). Benson had the ability to disguise himself by twisting his dead, malleable features into others' faces.
Paul Ernst writing under pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.
Kenneth Robeson: a house pseudonym used by Street and Smith Publications- used by Lester Dent, Paul Ernst, Ron Goulart, Will Murray.
First published in The Avenger pulp magazine in 1939.