Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen Series #8)

In Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, it is said that Love and Death shall arrive dancing. It is summer and the heat is oppressive, but for the small, rotund man in the faded red waistcoat, discomfiture is not just because of the sun. All is not well. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins skulk in alleyways, but the quarry has turned and the hunters become the hunted. Hidden hands pluck the strings of tyranny like a fell chorus. While the bards sing their tragic tales, somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds ... and in the distant city of Black Coral, ruled by Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, ancient crimes awaken, intent on revenge. It seems Love and Death are indeed about to arrive ... hand in hand, dancing.