[Next project] The Poisoned Chocolates Case, by Anthony Berkeley

[David]

This was recently released on PG (produced by Brian Raiter), and is one of the more notable Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones —

- PG: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/75476
- IA: https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781780020167/page/n3/mode/2up (2010 reprint with 1929 copyright statement)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poisoned_Chocolates_Case

It's reasonably short (~66k words), has a dedication, but the only formatting quirk is the table of potential solutions in the last chapter.

Repo, when it's ready, will be

https://github.com/dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case

Hope this looks okay -

David / Fife, UK

[David]

Ack! I didn't think to check this was on the "Wanted" list (as it's pretty recent on PG) and it's a "first-time production" option.

I'm already on to proof-reading.... :/ What would you like to do? I can suggest/add some other worthy "whodunnits" that would be good first-timers to "replace" this one. Or...??

(Sorry about that!) D.

[Alex Cabal]

You can keep working on it since you already started. Adding more items
to the first producers list is always welcomed. Emma will manage this
with Robin reviewing.

On 4/2/25 9:30 AM, David wrote:
> Ack! I didn't think to check this was on the "Wanted" list (as it's
> pretty recent on PG) and it's a "first-time production" option.
>
> I'm already on to proof-reading.... :/ What would you like to do? I can
> suggest/add some other worthy "whodunnits" that would be good
> first-timers to "replace" this one. Or...??
>
> (Sorry about that!) D.
>
> On Wednesday, 2 April 2025 at 09:09:28 UTC+1 David wrote:
>
> This was recently released on PG (produced by Brian Raiter), and is
> one of the more notable Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones —
>
> - PG: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/75476
> <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/75476>
> - IA:
> https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781780020167/page/n3/mode/2up
> <https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781780020167/page/n3/mode/2up>
> (2010 reprint with 1929 copyright statement)
> - Wikipedia:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poisoned_Chocolates_Case
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poisoned_Chocolates_Case>
>
> It's reasonably short (~66k words), has a dedication, but the only
> formatting quirk is the table of potential solutions

> <https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/75476/pg75476-images.html#chart-image> in the last chapter.

>
> Repo, when it's ready, will be

> https://github.com/dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case <https://github.com/dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case>

>
> Hope this looks okay -
>
> David / Fife, UK
>

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[David]

Ah, thanks. Relief.

As it happens, there are  37 PD titles on the Haycraft-Queen list that have PG transcriptions. I'll make a selection of those for first-time productions and do a PR on the Wanted page. Hope that helps!

D.

[Alex Cabal]

The wanted page is now backed by the DB so just send an email with the
list and I'll ad them.

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[David]

I'm getting ready to wrap this up, and there is still a cover to settle on. (I'm inclined not to use the 1st edition cover, even if I could find it in a large enough resolution. It's a bit lurid, and doesn't actually reflect the book's contents that well!)

But before the cover, I could use some help with the table noted in my original post (+ cf. the scans). At the moment, I've got this simply as a table in the flow of the text. In proofreading on my "device" (my phone, reading the epub with Pocketbook), that table was pretty much useless (illegible). Is PG's solution of an SVG a better way to go? Or is there some formatting trick that will permit the table to side-scroll (or whatever)??

At any rate, I'm optimistic there's a better solution to this than I'm aware of at present!

[Vince]

Hard to tell, as it doesn’t appear your GitHub repo is up to date.

Apple Books has the ability to tap on a table and see it larger (similar to clicking on an illustration to enlarge it). I don’t have or use any other readers, sorry.

There was a table that involved in Gibbon endnotes #7290, and the decision there was to leave it as is and let the ereader deal with it (or not).

[David]

Thanks, Vince - the Gibbon parallel was useful, and it's structure is much like this example. I'll just leave the table as-is and we'll see how it fares in review.

On to cover options, then. As mentioned earlier, the first edition cover is pretty poor (IMO), so I'm not inclined to use it, even if a sufficiently hi-res version could be found. The book is essentially a club of "criminologists" each offering in turn their solution to a crime that has stumped Scotland Yard. I think either of these would suit these soirée's, though the first is more atmospheric:

(1) This one is already in the Artworks DB; we probably don't want the "waitresses", but not too off-putting, I think —

 

(2) This one has some greenery that's slightly out of place, but the individuals in the frame suit our criminologists quite nicely (even the hat!) : [Source] + [PD Proof (1928)]:

Thoughts? I can keep looking (though I don't know what I'd now look for!) if neither of these is deemed acceptable. My sense is that either could work...

[Emma Sweeney]

The second option is more period accurate than the first. There is a painting of a bottle with a skull and crossbones that might be a better fit.

Still Life by Meri Genetz

Emma

[David]

Ooh! I like that a lot, Emma. (You have a way with covers, don't you!) Let's go with that. Thanks!

Hopefully soon ready for review - I'm in the closing stages, anyway.

[Emma Sweeney]

I'll mark the Meri Genetz painting as in use. I'll also add Yeats at Petitpas' by John Sloan to the art db.

Emma

[David]

Thanks, Emma! And with that, this is now ready for review, Robin. A few notes:

- mixed diacritics : c6/78 = `Place de l’Opéra`, not "opera".
- c13/80 - `play, The Creaking Skull, before` / the title of the play is an "unitalicized" `i` within `em`: `local.css` will be checked anyway, but I'm not sure I've marked this up correctly.
- c17 - check the table (as mentioned above). If there's a more "friendly" way to display this, that would be good to know.

D.

[Robin Whittleton]

Very good as usual: as you suggested just the table and the play italics to finesse. https://github.com/dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case/issues/1

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[Robin Whittleton]

OK Alex, over to you on this. The only thing I’m not sure about is the table in chapter 17: I suggested that we drop the font size to 0.8em to give normal readers a chance of rendering it, which necessitated a lint exception. But I think that’s the best option.

-Robin

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[Alex Cabal]

This ebook was produced by David Reimer. Thanks David!

Ebook URL:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/anthony-berkeley/the-poisoned-chocolates-case

GitHub URL:
https://github.com/standardebooks/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case

[Alex Cabal]

Great, I've released it, thanks!

We can't go below 1rem because that's an accessibility issue. Presumably
the reader set the font size at a comfortable level and going lower may
be uncomfortable or even unreadable for them.

On 4/19/25 4:40 AM, Robin Whittleton wrote:
> OK Alex, over to you on this. The only thing I’m not sure about is the
> table in chapter 17: I suggested that we drop the font size to 0.8em to
> give normal readers a chance of rendering it, which necessitated a lint
> exception. But I think that’s the best option.
>
> -Robin
>
>> On 16 Apr 2025, at 22:33, Robin Whittleton <ro...@reala.net> wrote:
>>
>> Very good as usual: as you suggested just the table and the play
>> italics to finesse. https://github.com/dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-

>> poisoned-chocolates-case/issues/1 <https://github.com/dajare/anthony-
>> berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case/issues/1>

>>
>>> On 16 Apr 2025, at 21:13, David <djre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>

>>> Thanks, Emma! And with that, this is now ready <https://github.com/
>>> dajare/anthony-berkeley_the-poisoned-chocolates-case> for review,

>>> Robin. A few notes:
>>>
>>> - mixed diacritics : c6/78 = `Place de l’Opéra`, not "opera".
>>> - c13/80 - `play, The Creaking Skull, before` / the title of the play
>>> is an "unitalicized" `i` within `em`: `local.css` will be checked
>>> anyway, but I'm not sure I've marked this up correctly.

>>> - c17 - check the table (as mentioned above <https://
>>> groups.google.com/g/standardebooks/c/vYzt3CD3nhA/m/jpo5sYzYAgAJ>). If

>>> there's a more "friendly" way to display this, that would be good to
>>> know.
>>>
>>> D.
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, 16 April 2025 at 17:48:54 UTC+1 Emma Sweeney wrote:
>>>
>>> I'll mark the Meri Genetz painting as in use. I'll also add Yeats
>>> at Petitpas' by John Sloan to the art db.
>>>
>>> Emma
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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