In The Kitchen - Monica Ali

This is Ali's third novel (Brick Lane & Alejanto Blue), set in a hotel kitchen, it tells the story of Gabe, the head chef, as his life begins to unravel. This is prompted by the death of a kitchen porter who appears to have been living in the hotel's basement and Gabe's investigation into how he came to be there and how the mysterious Lena is involved, and just what the restaurant manager is up to. Ali's novel peels back the layers of life in a hotel, the immigrants and the management, everyone from the lowliest pot washer to the general manager himself is studied by Gabe as he attempts to see beyond the veneer of respectability and also to work out his own family relationships.
This is different from Ali's famous first novel and again from her last, which I always think is good, novelists get typecast, just like actors, and Ali is veering away from that, although immigrants have featured in both this and Brick Lane, she doesn't get as indepth as previously. It's well written and intelligent, part crime novel, part introspective study of the protagonist.