Another intensely claustrophic, read at one sitting novel from this incredibly talented thriller writer.

4.5 stars
After really enjoying Will Dean's The Last Passenger, I was thrilled to be accepted to read The Chamber.
And I had a great time reading this.
It had all the same tension that I enjoyed from his previous book but add in the claustrophobia that had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
I also liked that it wasn't easy to guess what was going on, even if I did have a few different theories.
It felt so well researched too.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Will Dean does next as he is quickly becoming a must-read author for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an intense read, best done quickly I think or it could start to drag. I really enjoyed this insight into the world of deep sea saturation diving with a mystery at hand as a diver is found unresponsive and they have to decompress for 4 days before they can get answers. Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC

The Chamber is narrated by Ellen Brooke, an experienced saturation diver. Along with six others, she embarks on a mission to the depths of the North Sea.

Saturation diving is a highly specialised and perilous field, requiring divers to live and work in extreme conditions. Brooke and her team spend weeks at a time in a tiny metal capsule situated 100 meters below the surface.

They are completely cut off from the outside world and wholly dependent on their onshore support team for survival. The isolation and confinement create an intense, claustrophobic atmosphere.

The daily routine for these divers is gruelling and dangerous. They are tasked with intricate and high-stakes underwater operations, pushing the limits of human endurance and technical skill.

The psychological strain of living in such close quarters under immense pressure adds another layer of difficulty to their work. For those who are claustrophobic, the detailed descriptions of life in the capsule evoke a deep sense of fear and discomfort, mirroring the tension experienced by the characters.

When a diver is found dead in his bunk, the immediate priority becomes the need for a slow, meticulous decompression process, which will take four days to complete. During this time, the remaining crew members are trapped in the capsule, not knowing if there is a murderer among them. The isolation and the high stakes of their situation turn the story into a gripping psychological thriller.

As the decompression process unfolds, the crew's anxiety and suspicion grow. The tiny capsule becomes a pressure cooker of fear and mistrust, heightening the novel's suspense.

What begins as a captivating novel about a terrifying and niche profession transforms into a chilling locked-room thriller, keeping readers on edge until the very end.

Thank you so much to the author - Will Dean for writing such a chilling thriller! A huge thank you to Alainna and the team at Hodder & Stoughton for running a book tour and introducing us all to this book!

3.5/5.

What an absolute banger from Will Dean, this hugely immersive thriller is absolutely unputdownable! Just don't read on a diving holiday!

This was so well written. I felt like I was trapped deep down with the them and I really didn't like it! Such a good atmosphere and lots of tension.

Whether you’re claustrophobic or not, you may well be after this tense, locked room, confined space thriller.

I had no idea what to expect from this standalone book, but after the initial explanations of abbreviations used in the book, the story itself started, along with the beginning of the months dive. The reader is given some background to the six divers, the main characters in the story, focusing mainly on Ellen Brooke, the only female diver in the group.

The first working dive was a real experience to witness and then the story twists and the tension and pace really crank up.

Throughout the rest of the book, the reader is faced with dilemmas and problems galore, throw in suspicion and fear and you have a totally gripping, unnerving, thrilling read. Thank you Will Dean! And now…. breathe….

And breathe…this book literally had me holding my breath and having to take huge lungfuls of air at times! The feeling of claustrophobia and being in the edge of panic that the author created was incredible! So many theories, didn’t get any right! That last few hours of countdown were almost unbearable! Very well researched and has confirmed my feelings of never wanting to go diving!

Will Dean has done it again and delivered a totally gripping and terrifying thriller that really does take the phrase “locked room” to a whole new level. The claustrophobic atmosphere rises along with the tension - I really couldn’t put it down. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgally for letting me read this⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This novel truly had me on edge most of the way! An absolute heart-in-your-mouth journey from start to end and I take my hat off to Will who seems to be able to take any storyline and grip the reader from the first page.

I can’t imagine what those divers go through on a daily basis and Will gave us the right amount of detail without overpowering the storyline with research. A very interesting, yet highly dangerous job, but I guess someone has to do it!

A brilliant read and I’m still thinking about it!

Huge thanks to the publishers for giving me the chance to read and review this.

The Chamber was a fabulous book that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I knew nothing about saturation diving before I read this book and the thought of being under the sea for a number of days (and then having to decompress for more days!) is a terrifying thought. This book covers such a team, locked together in their little capsule and it all goes disastrously wrong when, one by one, they start dying! It is like an underwater Agatha Christie plot, who is responsible, is it one of their support team? Is it someone inside the chamber? This book is well written and terrifying, I would recommend it to anyone. My only negative comment is that the ending was a little ambiguous and I think the identity of the killer could be a matter of discussion.

Wow that was all a bit tense! I must admit I was worried before starting The Chamber that my expectations were too high as I absolutely love Will Dean’s Tuva Moodyson’s series. I had also had enough of the standard repetitive stomach churning, limbs tingling and hairs standing descriptions of terror I seem to have waded through recently and was worried a locked room thriller couldn’t be done without an eye rolling excess of them.

I need not have feared… what an outstanding book! The description of life as a saturation diver was utterly fascinating and the claustrophobic conditions and terror experienced when things go wrong grabbed my imagination and literally left me gripping my Kindle. There was not a single eye roll which is down to the exceptional writing, imagination and obvious extensive research of the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy.

A very tense thriller which is based six saturation divers and what unfolds as they are based in the depths of the deep, dark sea working on the sea bed.

This is such a brilliant psychological tale, that keeps you in suspense. I know have a new found respect for saturation divers! A great book!

Six divers go down to the bottom of the North Sea sealed in a hyperbaric chamber. They will stay there for a month, working in shifts & breathing a mixture of nitrogen & oxygen to keep them at the same pressure as the exterior of the chamber. Once down there they are unable to return to the normal life until they have been through the slow process of returning to normal air. Failure to do so would kill them. The five men & one woman are very well paid but they earn their money. There is little space, it is hot & uncomfortable & you have to have complete trust in each other. When one of the divers is found dead in his bunk it is a shock to them all- but that is just the start.

Well that was intense! I couldn't stop reading to see if anyone was going to come out alive! Thoughts of life in a submarine fills me with horror, but The Chamber was a step beyond! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. Among my top reads so far this year.

Wow -edge of your seat stuff !
6 Deep Sea divers sealed inside a hyperbaric chamber whilst working on the ocean seabed .
On the very first day one of them is found dead in their bunk -and then there were 5 ....

Will Dean's stand alone thrillers are absolutely terrifying ! I can't get enough of them !!


Thankyou NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

Will Dean's writing is always gripping, but I sadly didn't enjoy this as much as some of his earlier books. The 'locked room' element of the plot was thrilling, and the characters were all well and distinctly drawn, but although the divers were dropping like flies I didn't really feel I ever got the chance to develop my own theories about what was going on, and would have liked more clues, either genuine or red herrings, to make me feel more immersed. I will continue to autobuy everything he writes, but this one just fell slightly short for me.

Six divers are undergoing decompression in a hyperbaric chamber. Rapid decompression would be fatal so they have to remain calm and wait. Then one of them is found dead in his bunk. With 4 more days locked in the divers are agitated and restless. Then another diver goes down. Who or what is picking them off. Will anyone be left alive when the four days are up.

I initially struggled e to get into this one and felt a bit lost. I think possibly the jargon at the start took time to get to grips with even with the glossary to help. Once the story got going I was hooked. This would be a terrifying situation to be in. I was literally on the phone edge of my seat throughout and felt the terror and claustrophobia along with them.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton and Will Dean for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Chamber by Will Dean is an adrenaline fuelled, edge of your seat thriller that really did have me gripped from beginning to end. A very different type of read to his Tuva Moodyson series of books, this is a slow burn of a novel that gradually increases the tension as the story progresses. I had no idea just how palpably intense this page turner of a novel was going to get as the claustrophobic setting slowly takes hold of you by the throat and squeezes every last bit of air from your lungs.

The Chamber is a beautifully written, intense and surprising read, the tension slowly building as the divers find themselves increasingly in danger. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the hyperbaric chamber made me feel anxious as I put myself in the divers shoes, imagining what it would feel like to be trapped in a small space with no means of escape – and with the real possibility that not all of them will make it out alive…

On a boat in the middle of the North Sea, Ellen Brooke is about to spend a month locked inside a hyperbaric chamber with five other divers. But little does she know that this dive is going to be unlike any she has ever done before. And as danger lurks in the depths who, if anyone, is going to make it out alive? With Will Dean’s trademark twists and turns, the story steadily gathers pace as the tension builds towards a denouement that is as shocking as it is thrilling.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot as to do so would take away from the impact of simply experiencing it for yourself. Will Dean’s writing is as mesmerising as ever as The Chamber’s secrets are slowly revealed in a suspense filled and unpredictable story that will keep you guessing throughout. And I loved it!

A dark and gripping psychological thriller, The Chamber is a claustrophobic and atmospheric tale that had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Will Dean’s writing really does get better and better with every book and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next!

Highly recommended.

4.5 stars.

Claustrophobic, a book that takes your breath away and keeps you sitting on the edge of the chair because you don't know what will happen next and who can be the next or the culprit.
A fascinating, gripping, and twisty thriller that I strongly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

if you like a locked room mystery, then The Chamber is one you should have a look at. The Chamber is hyperbaric, inside is a crew of 6. A single unexpected death is unsettling but when a second follows it then shows a pattern. With no way out until the chamber has gone through decompression processes, there is nothing the crew can do apart from staying put. Staying put could kill them, escaping the chamber would definitely kill them.

The divers are introduced and there is a sense of camaraderie as most have worked with each other before. The style of diving is not for the weak-hearted or the inexperienced. It takes years of training to be allowed to work for the companies that operate in a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber is pressurised and once done it is lowered daily for any work to be completed. This means the divers are in the chamber for a month, the only time out is when they are many, many meters outside working, in this case in the North Sea on an oil rig.

The story is told by Ellen Brooke, the only female on board. She is documenting and recording the dive and so it makes her the ideal narrator for this book.

The author goes into a good amount of detail for the diving as far as the mixes of air, pressures, what happens at these extreme depths and what would happen if decompression was not done correctly. With a close-knit group, there are stories of previous jobs and experiences, these add something to each of the characters. It also explains the way each of them sort of sees life. Being at depth and under pressure takes a certain kind of mindset.

There is suspicion gradually builds and the crew of the chamber are not sure if it is someone inside or someone on board the ship who is responsible for the deaths. But whoever it is is being careful. As the story progresses you soon become aware of the tension and the stress that feels almost as claustrophobic as the interior of the chamber itself. This has been cleverly done and the constant awareness of the close quarters, the dangers and the depths has been worked in so well.

This is a fabulous story and one that I enjoyed, it is a great concept and has been worked well. A few key characters have issues of one sort or another. It's a mystery thriller that I would happily recommend.