A Matter of Iodine

The whole situation was most provoking and mysterious; the sudden radical change in the iodine shipments, the truculent, insulting letters. Further negotiations by mail were hopeless--someone had to go to France, to the agent in Paris and to the Brittany coast, where the seaweed was gathered and burned. It would be a delicate mission, of course, one that required tact and a certain amount of courage, but no one suspected it of being a dangerous one. . . .

If you are looking for the conventional mystery pattern which starts off with a bizarre crime to be followed by a deluge of foxy questions, another crime or so and finally the round-up of the "killer," you had better pass this one by. It's a curious story. Disarming at first, it will lead the reader to believe that he is a pretty clever fellow, only to trip him up neatly just as he is about to reach an unshakable conclusion. Written with a smoothness and subtlety, and a picturesqueness of detail that puts it way ahead of the mystery story class, the story grows on the reader, gathering in intensity and suspense until the wildly scattered events converge to a climax that is as utterly surprising as it is dramatic and original.

A Matter of Iodine was the Red Badge Prize Mystery for 1940.

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