6 experienced saturation divers are contracted on four week job deep down in the ocean. It starts off as normal routine operation but takes a turn for the worse when one diver suddenly dies. One dead body is certainly tragic: however, what does it mean when they find another colleague dead? Is it someone on the outside or is the killer closer? And who can you trust?
Amazingly researched book which I found gripping

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this eCopy to review

The Chamber is a tense thriller, that had me gripped, as the story unfolds the pressure mounts up literally as the characters are trapped in a hyperbaric chamber as they work to repair oil pipes on the sea floor. One day a diver is found unresponsive in his book, who killed him? Is anyone else safe?

A fantastic locked room escape mystery

The Chamber is such a claustrophobic, but gripping read. I loved this story and read it all in one sitting. Will Dean has such a way with words, bring on the next one

I found this difficult to get into a first, I couldn’t imagine the chamber. As I read on I did start to begin to build up a picture and I definitely got the claustrophobic, locked in feeling.

The idea is an interesting one and I felt like it picked up as the book went on but it was definitely a slow burner.

There is an interesting cast of characters to follow but the story is told through the POV of Brooke, the only woman on bored. We also get flashbacks to her ‘onshore’ life which helps to develop her as a character.

Overall an interesting read if you stick with it.

It's very rare these days that I will stay up to finish a book. As I've got older and more sensible and know I will be tired the next day and its generally not worth it, I say no. Yet at 80% ish of this I thought oh just one more chapter until it was gone 1am and I'd accidentally finished it!
Not there's locked room mysteries and there's 6 people locked in a pressurised hyperbaric chamber locked room mystery. I'm not particularly bothered by confined spaces but sheesh did I feel stressed out by container everything was. Having 5 other people so close you constantly touched and knocked. It would get on my nerves!
The story is told by Ellen, the only woman deep sat diver, trying to prove her worth, knowing she's leaving behind her young family and possibly failing them as a mum.
Not long after her first dive, the youngest and newest member of their team, nicknamed Teabag, dies mysteriously. As they are deep underwater, there is little they can do to save him, and they are also responsible for the beginnings of a criminal investigation. The dive is called off but it takes 4 days to decompress.
There is a fair bit of technical detail which I bet was utterly fascinating to research. Every detail is vital and there are no info dumps. All the characters are unique. The banter is fun and you learn more as the book progresses.
My heart was pounding for most of the book because of the confined atmosphere and the high stakes. The ending is a bit of a make your own mind up I think. I have my theory!
I didn't think Will could beat The Last Passenger but this is another book jumping onto a top 10 of the year straight off the bat and another I will be thinking about for long after.

Wow! This guy gets better and better. His Tuva Moodyson series is excellent and now his standalones are coming close to matching them. He is the master at putting characters in confined spaces and extreme circumstances and seeing how they cope. Here we meet six divers who are due to spend a period of time beneath the ocean in the titular chamber, and things start to go very wrong. The tension is almost unbearable, the twists incredible. I loved it!

Enter the world of deep sea diving. Ellen is one of few women who work on the ocean's floor repairing kit, based in a diving bell. She is at the beginning of the tour with 5 men and is first to go out. On her return they find one of their number in trouble in his bunk. His death means the shift is terminated, but it will be days before they reach the surface as they have to decompress safely.

Cue a lot of psychological tension, as we get to know the other shipmates and begin to discover what is happening as well as hearing about Ellen's backstory. As is usual with this author, there are quite a few twists and turns to the plot as well. The result is a tense and fascinating read, especially if you've never had any connection with diving.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, which is told well and really draws the reader in until you too cannot wait for them to reach safety. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Woah! Imagine a book that you don’t want to put down but makes you feel slightly queasy from beginning to end! That about sums up about how I felt about The Chamber - it may not be one for the claustrophobics amongst us, but this latest standalone book from Dean is a masterclass in locked room thrillers.

Six saturation divers begin a job that will see them spend a month in a hyperbaric chamber the size of a minibus. It is an intense environment that takes a certain sort of person - but nothing can prepare them for this particular dive. When the least experienced of them is found unresponsive, they begin to return to the surface, but in order to decompress safely that takes four days. And when another of them dies, the mental and physical pressure mounts. Who or what is killing them and will any of them come out alive?

The world of saturation diving is a complex one and it did take me a little time to get my head around it - helpfully there is a glossary and a diagram at the front of the book to enable the reader to understand how it all works and Dean’s ability to describe it all in meticulous detail is remarkable. As we get to know each of the divers, we get to understand more of them - and question whether one of them is responsible ….

It is claustrophobic, it’s intense and the levels of suspicion just keep rising. It is the definition of heart pounding - not one for the faint-hearted but oh so good!

Will Dean's The Last Passenger was one of my favourite reads last year. I'm also gradually working my way through his back catalogue so you could say I'm a fan.

The synopsis of this new book, The Chamber sounded terrifying so of course I had to read it. Six saturation divers are working a job in the North Sea when disaster strikes. One of the team is found dead in their bunk . Unable to continue on as planned, the long days of decompression begin before the chamber can be safely opened and the divers released but who will be left alive?

The Chamber is a well researched locked room thriller unlike any other. The atmosphere is tense and claustrophobic. There is no safe escape for the divers who are breathing a mix of oxygen and helium in a humid and confined space.

I tore through the pages just wanting to know what happened next. This is an outstanding read that left me breathless. I'm still thinking about it long after turning the last page and I think this one will sit with me for a while.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an advance copy.

The chamber is a breathless intense book. The thought of being so far down and having only a limited amount of space had me feeling claustrophobic.

Six divers are in a hyperbaric chamber for a month, their mission is to work in pairs and dive down to the sea bed and repair oil pipes, usually each dive should be around 6 hours before they have to go back up. This line of work is very dangerous, any mistakes big or small could kill them all. Soon a member of the team is found unconscious. They must wait for four days before they are to be brought back up to safety but the group starts becoming suspicious of each other and don't know who they can trust.

This book was fantastic, a original and locked in thriller that once i started i had to finish it. Throughout we learn of the characters backstories and there is some twists and turns and moments that had me shocked. A most definite must read. Will Dean is an amazing author and every single time his books blow me away. The Chamber is definitely my favourite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the copy of this arc in exchange of my full honest review.

The Chamber is a well researched and atmospherically chilling novel about six divers locked in a pressurised chamber under the North Sea.
They know that rapid decompression would be fatal and so they work in shifts, breathing helium, and surviving in hot, close quarters.

Then one of them is found dead in his bunk.......

If you are looking for a tense and claustrophobic locked room mystery/thriller then look no further.

4 stars

Six divers commit to an almost month-long diving job in the North Sea. When they’re not working on the sea bed, their time is spent together, in very cramped living quarters with virtually no privacy or time alone.

One dive in and the unthinkable happens. One of the six is found unresponsive - he hadn’t even left the chamber, so who or what is the cause?

Due to the extreme depth they’re at, it will take four days to safely decompress. Four days with nothing to do but think about their mortality. Four days with no distraction. Four days to try and stem the panic, paranoia, and suspicion. If one of them opens the hatch in the meantime - they’re all dead.

My nerves!

That was probably the most claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing book I’ve ever read. The sense of panic was so real and visceral - I felt stressed just reading this. Yet I could not put it down - I devoured it in two sittings.

Suspicion mounts in line with the feelings of cabin (chamber) fever. Imagine being trapped in an extremely confined space, doubting the very people that are there to keep you alive.

Dean has once again written great characters with interesting backstories, adding to the intrigue and suspense. I questioned each diver at one point or another.

It’s also a very interesting book, I learnt loads about sat diving and the extremely dangerous conditions people put themselves in for work. Kudos to those brave souls - I am NOT a fan of small spaces, so I’ll pass.

If you’re looking for a locked room thriller - they don’t come more locked room than this! Grab some Kwells and settle in.

A huge thanks to Will Dean, Hodder and Stoughton, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book for review consideration.  All opinions are my own.

So, I did like this book. It was tense and incredibly disturbing and when it was good, it was good. I just felt it was quite slow in parts.
It has an excellent premise but there's only so much you can write about from one small chamber I guess, so a lot of the story in the middle was sort of filler chapters and it felt a little repetitive.

Then there was a lot of excellent tension building that was stressing me tf out and I was loving it!!! Those last few chapters before the ending were very cleverly written! But then the ending fell a little flat and I was quite underwhelmed.

Overall, the story was mysterious and suspenseful and most of the ratings on GR are 4 and 5 stars so definitely worth a read, it just missed the mark a little for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Thank you @netgalley for the e-arc. All opinions are my own.

Unputdownable - really! - I glanced at it immediately when I’d downloaded it, and that set me off .. two and a half hours later, I’d absolutely jammed through it - a closed door mystery if there ever was one of a group stuck together in a deep dive pod: people keep dying off, and that despite the camaraderie of the crew who all, more-or-less, know each other - with no motive apparent either, even at the end. Characters are well drawn - I do not know how Will Dean can get inside a woman’s head and heart, but he does. And the numerous others. Their affections and fears etc. it will not surprise you when you find out who dunnit’ but there are lingering doubts … sensational …

If you suffer from claustrophobia, maybe check the trigger warnings...

This was quite the setting. I'd never even heard of divers working in these pressurisdd chambers, repairing underwater fixtures like bridges. It fascinated me, and Will Dean has done an incredible amount of research to make the intense and rather horrifying experience (but in a good way) it gives the readers. There is a lot of jargon to get to grips with, but the author has provided the readers with a glossary at the start.
Some scenes still stick in my mind days after reading, they are utterly unforgettable.

That was one of the most claustrophobic books I’ve ever read. I do suffer from claustrophobia so for me this really was a very tense read. It centres around six aquanauts who are spending a month inside a hyperbaric chamber in the North Sea making repairs to oil pipes. The story is told in the first person by Ellen Brooke, one of very few women ever to reach this level in the industry, but being a women does bring its own problems. The level of technical details in the book is very detailed so the author has clearly done a massive amount of research, and it’s fascinating, but not overwhelming.

Briefly, all is going well and the first dive has been completed, when Javad ‘tea-bag’ Assar is found unconscious in his bunk. The remaining divers, all medically trained to a high degree, do all they can to help him but he is dead. They are now responsible for taking samples for forensic analysis and bagging the body. The dive is called off but as it takes four days to decompress the chamber they have to wait the time out. They don’t know what killed him so the atmosphere is very strained, is there a killer on board? Or a poisonous gas? Or is their food being tampered with? Or was it just a natural death? So many possibilities…

Honestly I’ve never read anything quite like this, and I read a lot. The thought of being in such close proximity to five other people in a tiny metal box, reliant on others (their caretakers) for everything, literally everything, scares the heck out of me then having a dead body in with you - oh my god! There isn’t enough money, in all the world to make me do this! I’ve read some tense books in my time but I think this tops the lot for tension and if you like a locked room mystery it doesn’t get any more locked room than this. If I have any tiny misgivings then it’s the ending as I’m really not quite sure what happened! But I think that’s the point. I couldn’t put this down it was so compelling.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

After loving The Last Passenger, I was geared up for more from Will Dean!

Ellen Brooke is a deep sea diver, a world dominated by men. She finds herself in a pod with 5 other divers, for 28 days, breathing pressurised gas, with no way out. Then people start to die….

I enjoyed this, though not as much as The Last Passenger. There was a lot of reminiscing from the divers (I guess to illustrate how tedious it can be). But on the whole a solid 4 stars, kept me entertained for a couple of days!

The Chamber is an immaculately researched thriller centred around a saturation diving chamber. 6 specialist divers are in the chamber for a month long dive to repair oil pipes in the North Sea. Once they are in there is no way out before undergoing a 4 day period of decompression. They are looked after by a large team on the boat above who provide for them and observe them. The narrator is Ellen Brookes, the only female sat diver, the others are 4 experienced divers who she knows well and a new diver nicknamed Tea-bag.
After Ellen and Andre complete the first dive they come back to chaos as Tea-bag has been found unresponsive in his bunk.
Quickly his death is seen as suspicious and the decision is made to return them to the surface. As the 4 day countdown starts, questions are asked - how and why did he die and will others follow? Now the crew can’t trust each other or their support staff. The tension is unbearable.
Cleverly written, very detail heavy and an absolute page turner, The Chamber is a locked room thriller that will keep you guessing. However, I found it hard to care about some of the characters - Ellen’s narration provides distance and means that some of the divers are thinly drawn. There is never a great reveal, only a somewhat inconclusive ending which I found rather frustrating. It’s another fabulous thriller from
Will Dean but I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

must say the synopsis for this book really excited me.... the thought of 6 people working so closely together under extreme pressure on the sea bed very intense

but i found it very detached... it was very atmospheric but i didnt feel anything for any of the characters but i did want to know the whys or wherefores....

another strange book from an author that leaves you asking more questions than answering any....

This would always be an interesting, but horrific story for me, as I can’t swim and am scared of water, let alone anything to do with diving.
The story centres around six saturation divers, five men Mike, Jumbo, Andre, Spock and Tea-bag and one woman, Brooke is the main narrator of the story. The divers have all worked together before except for Tea-bag, a newly qualified saturation diver. The setting is a decompression chamber on a diving support vessel. The divers are locked in a chamber and are slowly being decompressed breathing in a mixture of oxygen and helium. This is in preparation for their work on the sea bed. un
However, not long into the process, tragedy occurs which results in one of the divers being found dead. Tragic accident…..maybe, but another diver dies and the remaining divers realise something sinister is afoot.
This is a terrific fast-paced read and one of the best similarities to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None that I’ve read. The claustrophobic atmosphere as the six are cheek-by-jowl in a cylinder similar in length to a campervan, is so intense. To add to the tension, even when the support team realise something is seriously wrong, they can’t bring the remaining divers out quickly, because the change in pressure would kill them. The tension literally leaps off every page and the writing is superb.
The only fault I could find was I was disappointed with the ending. Maybe the accumulated tension throughout the story was so much severe, any ending was going to be seen as somewhat of a letdown.
Nevertheless, I would recommend this. Four stars from me….five for the story minus one for the ending.
Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Will Dean for the ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.