[Next Project] The Case with Nine Solutions by JJ Connington

[mauka218lani]

Greetings,

I would like to try my hand at JJ Connington's The Case with Nine Solutions. It is on the wanted books list.

Scans are on HathiTrust  scans

Wikipedia has an image of the first American edition dustjacket  dustjacket

But, that semi cartoonish image does not really seem consistent with the oil painting approach. Best to look elsewhere for a cover image?

In the text I see numbered lists, tables, math, chemistry and secret code blocks. Anything else to watch out for?

Also, I see "8.5 a.m." as the time a telegram was handed in. Would that be "8:05 a.m."?

What do you think? Try this or pick another?

Thank you

[Alex Cabal]

OK! Please send a link to your repo once you start.

On 1/14/26 7:19 PM, 'mauka218lani' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I would like to try my hand at JJ Connington's The Case with Nine
> Solutions. It is on the wanted books list.
>

> Scans are on HathiTrust scans <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?
> id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=1>

>
> Wikipedia has an image of the first American edition dustjacket

> dustjacket <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_with_Nine_Solutions>

> But, that semi cartoonish image does not really seem consistent with the
> oil painting approach. Best to look elsewhere for a cover image?
>
> In the text I see numbered lists, tables, math, chemistry and secret
> code blocks. Anything else to watch out for?
>
> Also, I see "8.5 a.m." as the time a telegram was handed in. Would that
> be "8:05 a.m."?
>
> What do you think? Try this or pick another?
>
> Thank you
>

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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[mauka218lani]

Thank you. This is the repo:   github

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Weijia will manage with David reviewing.

On 1/15/26 1:35 PM, 'mauka218lani' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Thank you. This is the repo: github <https://github.com/mauka218lani/j-
> j-connington_the-case-with-nine-solutions.git>

>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7:11:12 AM UTC-10 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK! Please send a link to your repo once you start.
>
> On 1/14/26 7:19 PM, 'mauka218lani' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I would like to try my hand at JJ Connington's The Case with Nine
> > Solutions. It is on the wanted books list.
> >
> > Scans are on HathiTrust scans <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/

> pt <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt>?

> > id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=1>
> >
> > Wikipedia has an image of the first American edition dustjacket
> > dustjacket <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

> The_Case_with_Nine_Solutions <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

> The_Case_with_Nine_Solutions>>
> > But, that semi cartoonish image does not really seem consistent
> with the
> > oil painting approach. Best to look elsewhere for a cover image?
> >
> > In the text I see numbered lists, tables, math, chemistry and secret
> > code blocks. Anything else to watch out for?
> >
> > Also, I see "8.5 a.m." as the time a telegram was handed in.
> Would that
> > be "8:05 a.m."?
> >
> > What do you think? Try this or pick another?
> >
> > Thank you
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
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> send
> > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
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[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, noted!

[Weijia Cheng]

1. The dust jacket doesn't fit our style. I would look for something else.

2. Review https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/5-general-xhtml-and-css-patterns#5.7, https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/8-typography#8.8, and https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/8-typography#8.12.

3. For the 8.5 a.m., I would have guessed that should be read as 8:50? Is there something in the context that suggests one way or another?

[Vince]

It’s 8.05. That’s a Britishism; they decided they could drop the leading zeroes on time just like we do on regular numbers. I see it quite often, all the way through at least mid-20th century (Churchill uses that shorthand in his WWII history, e.g.).

On Jan 15, 2026, at 3:23 PM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

…

[mauka218lani]

Thank you. 

I plan to treat the X in the scan exerpt below as grapheme. It is not correct that se semanticate tagged the X as roman numeral. Please let me know if grapheme is not correct.

[Weijia Cheng]

Leave it unsemanticated. "X" is functioning as a name here. See https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/8-typography#8.2.8.3

[mauka218lani]

Thank you.

In this excerpt from the scan, the speaker is paraphasing Swift:

Se semanticate has marked tas follows:

‘Night, dear <abbr epub:type="z3998:initialism z3998:name-title">M.D.</abbr> Love Pdfr.’

Seems odd to mark one abbr and not the other. What do you recommend?

Thanks

[Weijia Cheng]

Well, that is why you also need to manually add some semantics. Semanticate can't catch every possible abbreviation. It only covers the most common ones.

[mauka218lani]

Thank you.

Below is excerpt from the scans, and Project Gutenberg has the same punctuation. Should the exclamation poiont be changed to question mark?

[Weijia Cheng]

That seems like it could be a printer's typo given the context. You can change it to a quotation mark in an editorial commit.

[mauka218lani]

Thanks.

Sorry to bother you with this, but I can't seem to find guidance for an italicized abbreviation. The difference in these two abbreviations is a clue to the case, which is probably why the author has them in italics. Below is the scan:

I assume the markup for this would involve some combination of abbr and either i or em.

Something like any of these?

<abbr><em>gr.</em></abbr>

<abbr><i>gr.</i></abbr>

<em><abbr>gr.</abbr></em>

Please advise which to use in what order, or if there is another approach that's more appropriate. Thank you for your time.

[Weijia Cheng]

<em><abbr>gr.</abbr></em> is correct.

[mauka218lani]

Thank you.

I am puzzled how to mark what may be french slang or may be a joke. As seen in scan excerpt below, character says "nom-de-kid" to imply a pseudonym. Perhaps this is like "nom-de-net" for an internet handle?

Project Gutenberg has marked this:   <i lang="fr">nom-de-kid</i>

What do you recommend? Thanks

[Weijia Cheng]

If you think that it is intended to be read as a French phrase (even if it isn't actual French) then you can mark it as xml:lang="fr"

[mauka218lani]

Greetings,

Seeking advice on balancing priorities. I'm unable to match the scan when using mathml, specifically the line marking a total.

Here is the scan:

Here is how my current version using mathml renders:

So close! Had to use mtable to get alignment of text, equal signs, numbers. But mathml does not have fine control of lines between table rows.

Please advise. Thanks

PS, Project Gutenberg marked up these formulas as tables.

[Alex Cabal]

MathML is not appropriate here. This should be a regular <table> and you
can see here for chemical formulas:
https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.6/single-page#8.12

On 1/23/26 7:43 PM, 'mauka218lani' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Greetings,
> Seeking advice on balancing priorities. I'm unable to match the scan
> when using mathml, specifically the line marking a total.
>
> Here is the scan:

> chemscan.png
>
> Here is how my current version using mathml renders:

> chemtor.png
>
> So close! Had to use mtable to get alignment of text, equal signs,
> numbers. But mathml does not have fine control of lines between table rows.
>
> Please advise. Thanks
> PS, Project Gutenberg marked up these formulas as tables.
>
> On Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 1:34:13 PM UTC-10 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> If you think that it is intended to be read as a French phrase (even
> if it isn't actual French) then you can mark it as xml:lang="fr"
>
> On Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 4:23:51 PM UTC-5 mauka218lani wrote:
>
> Thank you.
>
> I am puzzled how to mark what may be french slang or may be a
> joke. As seen in scan excerpt below, character says "nom-de-kid"
> to imply a pseudonym. Perhaps this is like "nom-de-net" for an
> internet handle?
>

> notfrench.png
>
> Project Gutenberg has marked this:   <i lang="fr">nom-de-kid</i>
>
> What do you recommend? Thanks
>
>
>
> On Sunday, January 18, 2026 at 3:45:56 PM UTC-10 weij...@bu.edu
> wrote:
>
> <em><abbr>gr.</abbr></em> is correct.
>
> On Sunday, January 18, 2026 at 6:03:58 PM UTC-5 mauka218lani
> wrote:
>
> Thanks.
>
> Sorry to bother you with this, but I can't seem to find
> guidance for an italicized abbreviation. The difference
> in these two abbreviations is a clue to the case, which
> is probably why the author has them in italics. Below is
> the scan:
>

> emabbr.png
>
> I assume the markup for this would involve some
> combination of abbr and either i or em.
> Something like any of these?
> <abbr><em>gr.</em></abbr>
> <abbr><i>gr.</i></abbr>
> <em><abbr>gr.</abbr></em>
>
> Please advise which to use in what order, or if there is
> another approach that's more appropriate. Thank you for
> your time.
>
>
> On Friday, January 16, 2026 at 4:10:00 PM UTC-10
> weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> That seems like it could be a printer's typo given
> the context. You can change it to a quotation mark
> in an editorial commit.
>
> On Friday, January 16, 2026 at 9:00:52 PM UTC-5
> mauka218lani wrote:
>
> Thank you.
>
> Below is excerpt from the scans, and Project
> Gutenberg has the same punctuation. Should the
> exclamation poiont be changed to question mark?
>

> point.png
>
>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 3:09:54 PM
> UTC-10 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> Well, that is why you also need to manually
> add some semantics. Semanticate can't catch
> every possible abbreviation. It only covers
> the most common ones.
>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7:39:36 PM
> UTC-5 mauka218lani wrote:
>
> Thank you.
> In this excerpt from the scan, the
> speaker is paraphasing Swift:
>

> md.png
>
> Se semanticate has marked tas follows:
> ‘Night, dear <abbr
> epub:type="z3998:initialism z3998:name-
> title">M.D.</abbr> Love Pdfr.’
>
> Seems odd to mark one abbr and not the
> other. What do you recommend?
> Thanks
>
>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at
> 2:23:00 PM UTC-10 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> Leave it unsemanticated. "X" is
> functioning as a name here. See
> https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.5/8-typography#8.2.8.3

> <https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.5/8-typography#8.2.8.3>

>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at
> 7:00:39 PM UTC-5 mauka218lani wrote:
>
> Thank you.
>
> I plan to treat the X in the
> scan exerpt below as grapheme.
> It is not correct that se
> semanticate tagged the X as
> roman numeral. Please let me
> know if grapheme is not correct.
>

> personX.png
>
> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at
> 12:36:18 PM UTC-10 Vince wrote:
>
> It’s 8.05. That’s a
> Britishism; they decided
> they could drop the leading
> zeroes on time just like we
> do on regular numbers. I see
> it quite often, all the way
> through at least mid-20th
> century (Churchill uses that
> shorthand in his WWII
> history, e.g.).
>
>> On Jan 15, 2026, at
>> 3:23 PM, 'Weijia Cheng'
>> via Standard Ebooks
>> <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>> …
>>
>> 3. For the 8.5 a.m., I
>> would have guessed that
>> should be read as 8:50? Is
>> there something in the
>> context that suggests one
>> way or another?
>

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[mauka218lani]

Please check this page, thanks

 

error on step by step page

[Weijia Cheng]

The issue was fixed, but it is not serving the new page yet: https://github.com/standardebooks/web/commit/06347c3f8ec436329c4923282d8ae44900974b6a

[mauka218lani]

Thank you.

An idea for the cover. I like the stained glass/jigsaw vibe for the puzzle this case presents. Also goes well with the central victim who was a woman, and was drugged. Thanks for considering.

Head of a Woman by Alvar Cawén

[Weijia Cheng]

Looks good; I added the art to the database.

[mauka218lani]

Greetings, 

The repo is ready for review:

repo

For convenience, I've created an issue summarizing the se tool changes that have not been accepted.

Thank you

[Vince]

Please don't name the issue "Review"—that is reserved for the actual review, so that our project system knows the review has taken place.

[mauka218lani]

Fixed.

[David]

I've been trying to do this review this morning, but severely hampered by the scans being only on Hathi (book published 1928), and needing to use VPN in the UK.

It _looks_ like the Hathi copy is downloadable as a whole (not always the case). If so, could some kind soul upload to IA? That would be a huge help!

[Alex Cabal]

Sure, I've sent a PDF

On 2/2/26 6:24 AM, David wrote:
> I've been trying to do this review this morning, but severely hampered
> by the scans being only on Hathi (book published 1928), and needing to
> use VPN in the UK.
>
> It _looks_ like the Hathi copy is downloadable as a whole (not always
> the case). If so, could some kind soul upload to IA? That would be a
> huge help!
>
> On Sunday, 1 February 2026 at 23:48:12 UTC mauka218lani wrote:
>
> Fixed.
>
> On Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 1:22:26 PM UTC-10 Vince wrote:
>
> Please don't name the issue "Review"—that is reserved for the
> actual review, so that our project system knows the review has
> taken place.
>
>
>> On Feb 1, 2026, at 3:42 PM, 'mauka218lani' via Standard Ebooks
>> <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> The repo is ready for review:
>>

>> repo <https://github.com/mauka218lani/j-j-connington_the-case-
>> with-nine-solutions>

>>
>> For convenience, I've created an issue summarizing the se tool
>> changes that have not been accepted.
>

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[David]

@mauka218lani - Good job getting to this point! I've put up a "Part 1" Review; could you work through those, and ping me when ready?

If you have any questions or comments, do add those as comments to the issue and we'll deal with them there. Thanks!

[David]

This should now be ready for you, Alex. A few things to be aware of:

• In c4/92, there is the string: `I can see the VEN.`, where "VEN" is the broken end of a postmark for `[Westerha]VEN`. That has been left as all-caps.
  
• There are a set of tables which lay out permutations of the potential crimes (the "solutions" of the title; example). The producer wished to retain dot leaders in these, like the scans, despite my sense that dot leaders are generally avoided in SE productions. You can see what you think of the CSS approach.
• Chapter 11 involves cracking a "code" that is presented in all-caps; the all-caps of the "code" have been retained, I hope appropriately.
• The headers to the "subchapter" bits in Chapter 19 have been styled to match the scans; perhaps SE "house style" will be preferred here.
• Chapter 19 also contains a space before a paragraph ("Points which seem...", p. 284); my sense was that it (the only such space in the novel) should be treated as a thematic break with `<hr/>`, but the producer's sense is that it doesn't merit that kind of treatment, so there is nothing to represent it now. You can see whether it looks "hr-ish" to you.
  

[Alex Cabal]

Great work, thanks! I've gone ahead and released it.

I agree with David on a few points - I removed the dot leaders because
dot leaders are not generally achievable given our CSS constraints for
what ereaders support. They don't come out looking satisfactory. I also
set the headers to house style. I can't access the scans right now but
I'll see if we should add an <hr> to where David is pointing.

If you'd like to work on something more advanced next, see our Wanted
List for moderate-difficulty productions, or pitch something else that
might interest you to the mailing list!

On 2/8/26 3:48 PM, David wrote:
> This should now be ready <https://github.com/mauka218lani/j-j-
> connington_the-case-with-nine-solutions> for you, Alex. A few things to
> be aware of:
>
> * In c4/92, there is the string: `I can see the VEN.`, where "VEN" is

> the broken end of a postmark for `[Westerha]VEN`. That has been left
> as all-caps.

> * There are a set of tables which lay out permutations of the
> potential crimes (the "solutions" of the title; example <https://
> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?
> id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=176&view=2up>). The producer wished to

> retain dot leaders in these, like the scans, despite my sense that
> dot leaders are generally avoided in SE productions. You can see
> what you think of the CSS approach.

> * Chapter 11 involves cracking a "code" <https://babel.hathitrust.org/
> cgi/pt?id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=168&view=2up> that is presented in

> all-caps; the all-caps of the "code" have been retained, I hope
> appropriately.

> * The headers to the "subchapter" bits in Chapter 19 <https://
> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=276&view=2up>

> have been styled to match the scans; perhaps SE "house style" will
> be preferred here.

> * Chapter 19 also contains a space before a paragraph <https://
> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yul.12600226_000_00&seq=288&view=1up>

> ("Points which seem...", p. 284); my sense was that it (the only
> such space in the novel) should be treated as a thematic break with
> `<hr/>`, but the producer's sense is that it doesn't merit that kind
> of treatment, so there is nothing to represent it now. You can see
> whether it looks "hr-ish" to you.
>
>

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