Still Life - Louise Penny
I sometimes wonder how anyone can be an unbiased, professional critic. Each of us has a style or genre that pleases us, and it is hard to get beyond that. I like detective stories. And that’s what Still Life is: a modern day detective story set in Canada. It introduces Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team of investigators. The Canadian setting is interesting itself. So many detective stories are set in England, Ireland, the United States. For a country that is so close, Canadians have their own issues. French Canadians are almost a different country themselves and that brings another layer of issues into this story.
Louise Penny is an excellent writer. She has the ability to carefully craft scenes and characters that are worthy of mentorship. There are passages in this book that I will go back to to study how to do it.
She has chosen a unique murder weapon—a bow and arrow. In most towns, that would severely limit the number of suspects, but in the town of Three Pines, it appears many inhabitants are proficient with archery and the town is close to the Quebec woods, where hunting is common. There is a town fascination with both archery and art. And there are a lot of odd people in the town as well, which complicates discerning the motive.
Although I didn’t map it out, I think she lost track of the passage of time. The detective was supposed to go away for a week and a memorial service was to be held a week out, and yet the murder only happened a week ago. I find it particularly irritating in TV shows when stars seem to travel places at the speed of light for international investigations. Maybe I was wrong and I should go back and reread the time frame.
But the other issue I had with this book is the uncontrolled fluttering of the point of view. I understand the omniscient third person, but I don’t believe I have read a book where the point of view shifts in single paragraphs. It makes me uncomfortable not know whose head I am in from sentence to sentence.
But there you go. It’s a matter of opinion and obviously many people like Louise Penny’s story telling just the way it is.
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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
 What are VOCs? Technically they are substances that can evaporate at room temperature and are commonly found in household products and building materials. In this land of sun and vacations on Cape Cod, I have often been out walking and smelled sunscreen through my COVID protecting mask. James Beard, the famous chef, exulted "There is no smell in the world to equal the perfume of baking bread. Unforunately part of that perfume is is ehanol, a natural alcohol given off as yeast metabolizes bread sugars during the fermentation that makes dough rise. Large bakers across the country have installed catalytic oxydizers for their ovens in order to comply with the Clean Air Act of 1990. Beer making releases VOCs into the air as well. Pine trees and rubbing alcohol and Chanel No. 5 all release VOCs.
According to the EPA, "The reason that some chemicals that are toxic are exempt from the VOC regulations is because they are not considered to be photochemically reactive. Therefore, some products that are labeled as 'no VOC' or 'low VOC' under the CAA [Clean Air Act] can actually contain volatile organic chemicals that are toxic, sometimes at high levels.
In addition, the concept of lowering "total VOC" (TVOC) "does not always assure safer products because the individual VOCs that make up TVOC can vary widely in their toxicity. While it is probably prudent to use products with lower VOC levels, it does not assure that the products are any better (and they may even be worse) than products with higher VOC levels." For example, paints that are labelled "Low VOC" make take longer to outgas their volatility while higher VOC paints may only directly affect the painters.
Essential oils are popular, but they do emit numerous VOCs including some that are hazardous such as acetaldehyde, acetone, and ethanol.
Smells are one of the markers of life - fragrances that can connect us to events or special moments. I shan't think of them as nasty volatile organic compounds today.
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