Paved With Good Intentions

They say never judge a book by its cover and this is a good lesson to take heed of with Peter McLean’s Paved With Good Intentions, as the UK cover stars Eline dressed in regal splendour. You see, Eline is also someone you should not judge from by her looks. She may be presenting as a member of the minor royalty but have hidden daggers under her sleeves. She may be acting as a common widow drinking too much in the pub. Which is real and which is the act?

Eline has already had a hard life and by the time she is in her mid-30s her children have flown the nest and all she has left for company is a husband who beats her. One day he goes too far and dies at the end of Eline’s knife. It is the noose for her, until she meets one of the Queen’s Men, a shadowy group of secret police, who hires her to infiltrate a house of ill repute and kill the madame. Is Eline a killer now? Is she still a mother, a lady of the night, a courtesan? She will have to be all of these things because one thing she certainly is, is a survivor.

I enjoy some Low Fantasy and Grimdark Fantasy, but even for me Paved is grim. Unlike many fantasy novels, this follows one protagonist on their journey, and what a journey Eline is sent on. From beaten husband killer, to brothel, to assassin, all the time getting a taste for spy craft and darker arts of espionage. This is Low Fantasy at its lowest, but also very well written.

Paved is a book you will have to gird your loins for before commencing, as it is told in graphic detail. The killings and torture are described for all to read, the sex acts are more implied, but still present. Eline is put through the wringer, and you question whether McLean has the authority to do this to a character. It feels very much like a woman’s story, but is it being told too much like it was written by a man? I cannot attest fully to this, but I can see it being a book that would require trigger warnings before commencing.

Dark subject matter aside, it is a well written and ‘enjoyable’ book. Eline is a character that you want to see good things happen to, although a lot of terrible things happen too. She develops in interesting and exciting ways. She is part of a wider world that McLean has written in before, but she fits in seamlessly and we are given a glimpse in what it is like to be both poor and rich in this fantasy city.

Like many Low Fantasy novels, magic is present, but it is limited. Only a few hold any power and they often work for the government or police. Eline skills lie elsewhere; her quick thinking, her ability to assess and manipulate a situation. She deftly uses the skills learned bringing up a family on no money, to a brothel, or to high society.

The front cover of Paved currently leans into what I would have thought was Romantasy. This is not that genre, if anything it is the antithesis, Eline’s story may put you off relationships forever. This is a hard hitting, bloody and sexual slice of Low Fantasy. It deals with heavy subject matters, but remains a quick and entertaining piece of Fantasy, if you are happy to read the themes within.