Overall, despite its having a decent plot and potentially interesting characters, this book was not really to my taste. I don't think that should put anyone else off reading it - my taste is by no means everyone's.
Kamil Rahman appeared first in "The Waiter", and although I prefer to read books in order, when the publishers via Netgalley kindly offered me Kamil's second outing to review, I decided to read it first. I feel that may have been my mistake.
Reviews of "The Waiter", explicitly mention the vivid interweaving of cultures by alternating between past events in Kolkata and the present in London being so enjoyable. However, unlike the first book, the action here is based solely in London, and I found it very hard to engage with the characters and the communities. Even though I the fault may be with me, (in that the age and background of the players is well outside my demographic), I think the author should have made me engage more, and thus given me more of an interest in things about which I know little. I have the slight impression that the author said all he wanted to about the characters in the first book, (perhaps an indication that they are a little shallow?). Even the themes of homelessness and domestic abuse - which are shocking and ever-present in our society - failed to raise the emotions in the way they should have.
Despite the good story, I felt Kamil's investigation came across as implausible; the concept of a familiar crew getting together to solve a mystery on their own smacked almost of a children's story. All books with "amateur detectives" have these kinds of inherent problem - I heard one experienced author saying: "why would a person in reality accept being questioned by anyone other than the police?". However, again, I think it's the author's job to answer that question, and make me suspend my disbelief.
Despite all this, I am still keen to read "The Waiter", and I hope we might get improved characterisations as the series - and the author - progress.

I read this book straight after the first in the series “The Waiter” and found that all I had enjoyed so much in the book continued into this second book.
The characterisations and the vivid descriptions of a culture and an area of London I am unfamiliar with alongside a murder mystery made this an entertaining read.

Thanks to Ajay and NetGalley for allowing me to read The Cook before the publication date.
From his former role as a detective in Kolkata, Kamil Rahman is now a cook in Tandoori Knights, a restaurant in Brick Lane, London. Whilst her parents are tending to a sick relative, Psychologist Anjoli Chaterjee is managing TK.

When Salma, a customer and student nurse, leaves her phone at TK, fellow student nurse, Naila says that she will return the phone. Kamil quickly offers to accompany Naila, welcoming the opportunity to spend time with her.
A quick assessment of the area and Kamil tells Naila to stay in the car. He makes his way through the group of teenagers hanging around the entrance to the flats only to find Salma’s door lying open and her body inside. DS Tahir Ismail, a friend of Anjoli’s, is part of the investigation team.
Anjoli tells Kamil that he must help with the investigation. Despite Tahir’s reluctance, he is won over by his desire for promotion and Kamil’s help might achieve that.

Despite struggling to keep TK profitable, Anjoli and Kamil are in the habit of giving Yasir, a homeless Syrian man, money and food. They are disturbed when they find him dead in a doorway with a bottle of gin beside him, particularly because they know he does not drink alcohol. The post mortem fails to reveal a specific cause of death.

When Louis, another homeless man, is sent to TK to be given a meal, he tells Anjoli that he found another homeless man dead just weeks before. Days later, Louis is found dead outside a shelter with a gin bottle at his side.
Concerned about the number of homeless people who are dying, Anjoli obtains the statistics and finds that despite the mild winter, the number of elderly homeless men who have died in 2 boroughs has doubled.
Determined to get to the bottom of it, Anjoli, Kamil and Naila form the Duskyteers to investigate the deaths.

This is a tale with many secrets and even more lies, deceit and manipulation.

Kamil use to be a detective in Kolkata but is now a cook in an east end restaurant. He has a glamorous new girlfriend, a student nurse from Pakistan. One of her friends is murdered and there are so many suspects - an honour killing by her father? Was she having an affair with her tutor? Was it her boyfriend? In addition Kamil's boss, a charitable soul who feeds the homeless with leftovers from the restaurant, notices that a suspicious number of homeless have died on the street recently. There are an ingenious number of twists and turns and blind alleys for Kamil to go up.. You won't guess who the killer is (Kamil doesn't either). If you like your detective fiction cosily multicultural this is for you - gritty its not.

The Cook is a traditional whodunnit set in contemporary London with direct links to the Indian subcontinent (the narrator/cook/detective protagonist, Kamil is effectively in exile from Kolkata, the family of Anjoli, his employer, and others have emigrated from there at one point or another, Naila has run away from Lahore and an abusive husband to become a nurse, Salma's father is Pakistani...) The storyline weaves together a number of interesting themes - from personal choices to homelessness, abusive relationships, family responsibility, religious practice etc. It is a classic whodunnit with a social conscience, but I did not find as compelling as other offerings in a similar category. I found the treatment of events and characters a bit clanky and somehow I knew what was coming a bit too early in the book. This is very much light entertainment but not as thrilling as I was hoping to find it. Many thanks to the publishers via NetGalley for letting me read and comment on it.

There is some lovely language and dialogue in this book. I enjoyed it from start to finish. There are some real stand-out, step-back, moments where I thought "wow" that's a great line, I should write that down and use that today!
I love the humour brought into it at times too - e.g. with Anjoli's varied t-shirt slogans.
There's a continued rich theme throughout this book of love/affection/friendship between the characters whilst they investigate a friend's death, whilst keeping a busy restaurant going and also touching on the local homelessness and suspicious deaths occurring there too.
There a few different strands/investigations going to keep the mind whirring and the reader on their toes.
The only thing lacking overall for me was an element of danger/thrill as it's largely investigation after-the-fact in how it is played out.

Many thanks for the preview copy, really enjoyed it.

As I didn't like the first book, I didn't even attempt to read this one, as I felt it wouldn't be interesting for me to even try

Kamil Rahman returns and he doesn’t disappoint.
Kamil an ex kolkata detective has been promoted and he’s now a cook at the restaurant on Brick Lane , but he can’t resist the pull of investigating crimes.
A spate of deaths in the homeless community piques his friend Anjoli’s interest , which in turn pulls Kamil in.
There is also a love interest for Rahman , and an added murder of a student nurse, so Kamil has a lot going on.
The story is well written and plotted perfectly, with a great twist at the end.
The characters are amiable and have a great dynamic and the story is an absorbing read.
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK.

I read this book as a standalone as I had not read the previous book 'The Waiter' which is the first in the series. I think it would have helped to read this first so that I had a better idea of the characters' backgrounds. Having said that, this mystery crime story works very well as a standalone. Kamil, an ex-detective from Kolkata becomes involved in an investigation into the death of a young student nurse and subsequently an a separate puzzle concerning the unexpected deaths of homeless men. The plot is well crafted and although I had an inkling that one of the characters was somehow involved I did not guess the entire ending. The details of Punjabi and Bengali life as well as the everyday running of an Indian restaurant added depth to the story and made it more enjoyable. I think I would advise readers to red both books in order to get the maximum enjoyment out of them because, if the first is as good as this, it is worth reading.

So very much enjoyed reading this book.
An unusual main character,once a detective in India turned cook ending up in London's Brick Lane but still has intuition for solving crimes.
An absolute corker of a twist towards the end,blew me away!
A very well thought out plot
Congratulations to the author and I look forward to reading more from this author.

When an ex-policeman hears about the death of a student nurse he feels compelled to investigate the circumstances. He finds a link with the number of unexplained deaths in the area. A great next read after The Waiter. You can't help but like Kamil.

I gave this author a second try but it is just not my cuppa tea. Sadly I did not engage with the characters. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

Kamil settled in his life in Brick Lane, East London; now, he is a cook in the restaurant that his friend Anjoli manages. It's the second in the series but readable as a standalone. The book begins with a young woman realising that the man she married is controlling, she works out a way to escape to London to train as a Nurse, and it's here that Naila meets Kamil. The amateur sleuths investigate a murder of a colleague of Naila's and the deaths of homeless men in the vicinity.

I like the dynamic between Kamil and Anjoli and how he accepts his new life. The well-plotted murder mystery has surprising twists, and the story explores darker contemporary and cultural issues through the characters and plot. The humour and believable relationships make this memorable.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

This is the first book I have read by Ajay Chowdhury and was not disappointed really enjoyed the story of a disgraced cop from India who now works as a cook in London. When homeless people start ending up murdered he cannot help but get involved. When he meets Naila who is training to be a nurse and her best friend gets murdered they work together to get to the truth.
A lot of twists and turns which makes you want to keep on reading until the end.
This is a real page turner and I would highly recommend as the ending is totally unexpected.
Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Publishing for a advanced copy.

While supposed to be cooking for a living in London, this former police detective from Kolkata, India, is tempted to help the local police and his friends as he finds two bodies in two days. The deaths may or may not be related.
The first book in this series was a great introduction to this wonderful set of characters and this second book doesn’t disappoint at all. I couldn’t remember his falling out with what was the perfect girlfriend, but he has a new one in this novel (and clearly friends with the original) and the new one has links to India that are not talked about, initially, but they are troublesome and must be solved before the girl can move on. Having a friend murdered isn’t a good beginning.
It might be that someone is targeting the homeless in London, with a view to murder. Only this cook/detective appears capable or finding out.
This excellent story can be read as a standalone, but treat yourself to both books. I’m sure more will follow and I’ll be sure to read them. I did receive a free copy of this book, but that doesn’t alter my review. The cultural awareness is excellent and is a nice learning curve for me. I must not forget to mention that this is an excellent detective novel with clever clues and twists that were most unexpected.

The Cook by Ajay Chowdhury is a thrilling and welcome return to action for former-detective Kamil Rahman to investigate the murder of a customer Salma who had just left the Tandoori Knights restaurant.

Kamil, who is now on first name terms with the local police after his first investigation in The Waiter, discovers the body of a local student nurse who had just collected a takeaway meal from the restaurant. His restaurant manager and friend, Anjoli encourages Kamil to figure out what happened to Salma. Kamil is reluctant to get involved initially but also wants to show that he could still be a good detective. In parallel, the deaths of a number of homeless people has got the attention of Anjoli but she is unsure how they could be related.

This is a 'delicious' and well-written story, where Chowdhury describes wonderful meals being cooked during the course of the investigation. We also get excellent background cultural explanations on different communities from India and Pakistan in the London areas of Brick Lane and Southall.

Two books in and I still have no idea of the target audience. As I said in my review of The Waiter, it reads like it was written by the batman in "It ain't half hot mum" and that feeling abides. The only conclusion that I can draw is that the target audience should be T&YA, even though the Amazon listing for it and the reviews say otherwise.

The whole cadence of the language jars slightly and it slowed my reading speed almost to a crawl. As this book is sub-titled Detective Kamil Rahman 2, I guess there will be a volume 3 and I will read it just to see if this Detective Kamil Rahman (Kolkata PD fired) joins the Met. Whilst I had The Cook close to the top of my book pile, what may end up being titled The Detective will not be, as I will be reading it solely out of curiosity and not out of a sense of anticipation.

I loved The Waiter so was excited to get to this follow up and it definitely did not disappoint. If anything I think it was slightly better than the first book but maybe that is just because Kamil is a more developed character now and so that leaves more time to delve into the plot of this actual story. And what a great story it was with basically 2 separate murders, one definitely a murder and the other more a mystery. It all builds up into an amazing ending with a brilliant twist that I absolutely did not see coming. It totally blew me away and like Kamil I was wondering how I could have missed it.

If you like murder mystery crime novels, set in London then this is definitely going to float your boat.

I really enjoyed "the waiter" and was delighted to find this was equally good. I enjoyed meeting up with Kamil and Anjoli again and liked the lighthanded way the author managed to merged contemporary social issues with the lives of an immigrant population and a good old fashioned detective story. The twist was very clever and the descriptions of the food made me feel very hungry.
I'm hoping there will be a further instalment soon
thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book

This is the first book I have read by this author and although it often references the earlier book I did not find that it affected my enjoyment.
Set in the Brick Lane area of London and centered on a South Asian restaurant in which an ex Kolkata detective works as a cook and investigates the murder of a young Asian nursing student the story has many twists and turns and several strands which come together in a rather surprising ending.
I found the book interesting not only as a murder mystery but also as an insight into the South Asian community in London. If the author continues with this quality he will surely find continued success in the British crime genre.