A pretty short story, but still, spoilers may exist as I plow forward.
Cool Air is a story about a hard-up magazine writer and a mysterious doctor, whose utter mastery of the medical craft astounds the writer. He becomes the doctor’s helper in doing various tasks, including maintaining the ammonia cooling system that keeps the doctor’s quarters frigid.
He notes a strange smell in the air early on, and notes that after one ominous day, whenever it’s cold, he feels horrified. This is because the doctor had died 18 years ago and the tissues were holding together as long as he kept his body cold, as revealed by the climax.
This is kind of an interesting idea, but like The Beast in the Cave before it, the climactic epiphany is about as strong as rotten sackcloth. That he was talking to a walking corpse that behaved completely like a normal human is hardly chilling worrisome… not like one that hungers for your brains. What’s so horrifying about a guy in a dead meatsuit if he’s completely beneficial to the living? There’s no tension there. The doctor wasn’t even that sinister, he had utter mastery of the healing arts, and gladly used his skill to save others. Why the big freak-out at the end?
I can only conclude that this guy, like some of Lovecraft’s other protagonists, have all the grit of a Disney movie. Comparing this protagonist to Willett from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, I have to say that this protagonist’s weak, cowardly reaction towards something as simple as a friendly ghost is not deserving of any sympathy. In fact, the whole story, in that final moment, just seems silly. And not in a giant blind albino penguin way.
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