Wow could not put this book down… read it in two sittings. A more claustrophobic thriller you will not find. Six saturation divers locked in a chamber is the ultimate locked room thriller where those whose job it is to keep them alive, watch on but cannot save them. Is the threat from inside the six or is it from outside? The level of technical detail only adds to the terror of this character driven thriller. Who will survive?

This is a difficult review to write, as I am a great fan of the author, but, I really struggled with this book.

It’s an incredibly claustrophobic read, based as it is in ‘The Chamber’ where a team of divers live whilst working. It’s descriptive and horrifying.

What worked for me; the protagonist was interesting and the concept unique. I did struggle to finish it, but, I’m glad I did as the first and last parts of the book I thoroughly enjoyed.
What didn’t was the over egging and repetition of the descriptions of everything! In my opinion it requires more editing.

Overall, I’m saying an OK read as the beginning and end did work for me, but, I found it a tough, uncomfortable read.

I’m grateful to NetGalley and Hodder Books for the opportunity to preview.

After reading the tour de force that was 'The Last Passenger' last year, Will Dean became one of my new favorite thriller writers, so I was excited to read this follow-up. Unfortunately, 'The Chamber' ended up being a disappointment for me personally, something I really didn't expect (although thankfully, I seem to be in the minority.)

While his last book was fast-paced, full of twists, and featured memorable characters, 'The Chamber' felt like the complete opposite: a slow-paced and almost character-focused, rather than plot-heavy, thriller—except, the characters were unremarkable, and I hardly cared what happened to them!

That being said, it was the pacing that really deflated my reading experience. A particularly tedious passage detailing the "pre-autopsy" and transportation of a body lasted for fifty pages, which seemed completely unnecessary. I guess this could've been harrowing to read if I cared about the characters or empathized with how difficult a position they were in, but instead, I just wanted the plot to move along!

To summarise, Will Dean is technically a very capable writer, and his depiction of saturation diving is clearly thoroughly researched. Unfortunately, 'The Chamber,' with its uninteresting characters stuck in a situation where they lack the agency to change their predicament, results in a mostly frustrating and ultimately disappointing read.

Final rating: ★★¼

The Passenger was one of my favourite reads of 2023 so I was so excited to read the latest book by Will Dean who is an autobuy author for me.
This was another locked room thriller but with such an original setting! This is one of the most claustrophobic thrillers I have ever read. I quickly found myself totally immersed in the life of a saturation diver, spending four weeks in a tiny 'chamber' with five other divers, at extreme depths in the North Sea (which I would personally hate!!) Each diver has very little personal space.
I knew very little about this topic but Will Dean has clearly researched it on great detail as there is even a glossary at the start of the book.
After the first diver mysteriously dies the fear and suspicion starts to mount. Was it accidental? Following the death it will take four additional days of decompression to reach the surface so the remaining divers are trapped in the chamber.
They are also totally reliant on those on the outside for food and maintenance of their chamber. Could someone be deliberately causing them harm or is it someone within the chamber itself? The story is narrated by the sole female diver, Ellen although as the paranoia builds the narration becomes slightly unreliable.
I raced through this book as I wanted to find out who behind the deaths. I found it a great page turner although I did find it slightly hard to keep track of the six divers and their individual diving stories. I also had a few unanswered questions at the end! Overall though this was a great page turner with a highly original premise.If you enjoy a locked room thriller I would recommend this book!

I found this novel to be very atmospheric, scary, oppressive, and so full of tension, that increased the pressure with each chapter read.
We are in the world of Saturation diving, and with the world of oil and gas exploration constantly in the news, so very topical. Luckily all this strange, yet vital world is explained in great detail throughout.
Set East of Aberdeen, the action focuses upon the claustrophobic setting inside a diving bell, 100 metres beneath the North Sea, and the crew of the Dive control. There are six divers onboard, and their fears of accidental decompression is real and accurate.
When a diver is found dead within the diving bell, how this affects the remaining divers is very well realised, especially as the murderer cannot just vanish, but is there, alongside those who up to now have been regarded as friends and dependable team mates. The divers are such likeable people and have very fascinating back histories.
The topic of bereavement and tragic loss, and how the resulting grief causes inner turmoil is well described. The medical details of CPR and medical procedures are excellent. The stress and strain of not knowing who to trust plays on the reader as well.
The method of murder is very inventive and the hiding place of the weapon of choice is very creative. I didn’t guess the killer, but even as the person was revealed, I still had what I believe are valid doubts.
If I see the name Will Dean on a boat or ferry passenger list, then I’m travelling the next day!! Strange events happen in his books and they do make my heart race a tad faster when I read his books. Very compulsive and engrossing. Five stars for sure.
My thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for my advanced copy, freely given in exchange for my honest review. I will leave a copy to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

Placing my bet now: this is going to be THE buzzy hot thriller of 2024. THE CHAMBER is fascinating. It is a unique twist on the classic locked room mystery but the room is a literal pressure chamber.

Six deep sea divers are closed in, and the atmospheric pressure is increased until it matches that under the North Sea. This allows the divers to work on the seabed for weeks at a time without risking decompression sickness. But when one of them dies mysteriously, it will take days before they are acclimated to surface pressure and safely able to leave the ship. Are they trapped in with a killer? Or are they at the mercy of someone who controls the very air they breathe, and who means them harm?

You have to love a book that starts with a comprehensive glossary! Will Dean definitely did his research on this one. It paid off because he managed to fully immerse me in a completely unfamiliar setting. If you're really keen on diving and maritime history, you might find the references to past real life disasters a bit surface level. But as someone who is quite ignorant on the topic, it was engrossing. The only thing keeping this from a full five stars is that I found the ending a little underwhelming. Otherwise this was a pageturning take on And Then There Were None.

Will Dean has done it again with this terrifying thriller set in a tiny cramped high pressure deep sea diving chamber. The amount of research and detailed knowledge that has gone into the writing of this book is absolutely staggering. It really gives the reader such a vivid experience of being in the chamber, it really is as though you are there. Throughout the book, the pressure, the stagnant gas and primal urge to escape are with you in person.
It's written in the 1st person which I love , and yet again he writes so well as a woman I'm left wondering how he does it.
You'll feel totally immersed in the life of a deep sea diver and will be left wondering if you need to decompress too.
A one day read for me. Utterly fantastic.

✨My Thoughts✨

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like every single Will Dean book that I’ve read The Chamber is like a runaway train, you hold on for the ride with everything you’ve got until it eventually comes to a stop and it lets you go.

I really enjoyed the technical side of this story learning about what being a saturation diver involves and how much goes into it and how much could possibly go wrong too.

I stayed up until 2am to try and finish this book after starting it around 5pm but I had to go to sleep but I picked it up the following morning and didn’t stop until i had read every last page.

The claustrophobic, tense atmosphere had me right in the chamber with Ellen and the lads. I was so shocked at all the twists and I really don’t know what to think about actually happened at the end but I have my suspicions.

I could say so much about this book and go in to great detail about all the characters and what I thought etc but I try and keep my reviews spoiler free, if anyone reading this has read The Chamber please get in touch so we can go over all the twists!.

First of all I would just like to thank Netgalley, Will Dean and Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC of “The Chamber” in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! The tension builds up effectively throughout the book and you have no idea where the plot is ultimately going. It has a very confining/claustrophobic atmosphere (for obvious reasons) and so the writing accurately evokes feelings of discomfort in the reader.

The author never fails to amaze me with the level of research he is willing to put into his books. It is abundantly clear from the get go that the author thoroughly knows what he’s talking about- this makes it a very realistic and immersive experience.

The pacing was slightly off and dipped in the middle with a lot of lacklustre“filler” stories shared among the six divers, however this quickly picked up again as the body count increased.

I’m unsure about the ending- I was happy with the culprit and there were several plot twists that I didn’t see coming, but it was also quite confusing. I would have liked some more clarification for it to have been truly effective and for it to reach its true potential.

There was also a plot twist half way through that I wasn’t expecting at all- I’m always thrilled when this happens as it piques my interest.

Overall, a really good thriller, despite not being as a good as ‘The Last Passenger’.

Definitely recommend!

4.75 stars rounded up

"Trust is built over many years. And it can be destroyed in minutes"

Six experienced saturation divers embark on a what was supposed to be a four-week job at unspeakable depths in the ocean. What initially begins as a standard and routine operation, takes a turn for the worse when one diver suddenly dies. One dead body is certainly tragic: however, what does it mean when one body becomes, two, then three, the four? Is someone on the outside taking them out one by one? Or is the killer much closer to home?

When I first saw the blurb for this on netgalley I was so intrigued and could not hit the request button fast enough. After devouring this book in twenty-four hours, I can say I was not disappointed at all.

I am a huge fan of the locked door/room trope, and this book delivers on that remarkably. First the setting- um yes please! The mere thought of these divers being trapped at those depths, not being able to escape an almost certain death. Having to rely on the word of outside sources and colleagues, having to place a certain level of trust in each other. All the while not knowing who is next or who or what is killing them, made for the most ominous and terror inducing read.

The narrator becoming increasingly unhinged as the story progressed only adds to the trepidation and unease of the book. The author skillfully conveys the horrors that sat divers face and just how dangerous their job truly is. I mean something as simple as a carbonated beverage can cause significant damage at those depths. He didn't just make it about the mystery but, he also uses the setting of the book to create an atmosphere of raw fear and paranoia.

I liked how he incorporates real life sat diving tragedies such as the Byford Dolphin accident- a true horrific tragedy that depicts just how deadly and precarious a sat divers job is. I also loved the subtle foreshadowing of doom when he used the line "and then they were four." If you've read this book, then you know what I mean.

The final 80% of the book was filled with revelations about our narrator, ones that I did see coming but was still done well, nonetheless. Though predictable I still really enjoyed the ending, especially the final chapter. It was a lot darker than I could've anticipated and I loved that.
Overall, a wonderfully crafted locked door thriller that you will not be able to put down.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Will Dean for my eARC of this book. All opinions are 100% my own.

I was so excited to read this book, the first I have read from this author, but sadly it was a huge disappointment for me.

There was very little plot and a LOT of filler, by way of technical information and old dive stories, that lent nothing to the story. The characters were bland and unlikeable and each one had a nickname, so with six main diving characters, there were 12 names to get my head around, as well as the supporting characters and unfortunately, it was a mess.

It took me several days to read it (I usually read a book in an evening) as I was bored. I nearly DNF'd several times, but I was hanging on to the hope that there might be some serious action or a massive twist... there wasn't.

This might appeal to a reader who is a saturation diver themselves as they may find it more relatable, but I'm sorry to say it didn't work for me.

2 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Will Dean and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Having just read The Last Passenger and finding it a really different read to anything else I had read for a while, I was looking forward to start The Chamber by Will Dean.

We meet main character Ellen, she is about to enter an underwater chamber with 5 other divers. To say the premise of this is book is interesting is slightly an understatement in my eyes.

I was hooked and as I am slightly claustrophobic, very glad it was just a book.

Things do not go smoothly on the journey into the deep blue sea and there is someone who is not a team player amongst one of them.

A very well written, fast paced book this will have you on the edge of your seat.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Will Dean for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

The Chamber
I have read several of Will Dean’s stand-alone books and The Chamber is definitely a thrilling read that will have you trying to work out the puzzle of what is going on in this extreme locked room mystery.
When six saturation divers are locked into a hyperbaric chamber for their latest job everything seems to be progressing as normal. They all know each other and manage to work quite well together. After the first dive takes place one of the team is found dead. What they don’t know is how or why. With the mission called off they now have to wait four days for decompression to complete before they can exit the chamber they are living in. With no outside access they have to process the body and hope that this was just an accident and nothing more sinister. When another diver dies things become more serious and it is not long before the remaining divers start to suffer from a little paranoia as no one is above suspicion.
The story is told through the eyes of Ellen Brooke who takes you through the events as they happen. Her observations add to the claustrophobic feeling in the chamber as thanks to Will Dean you can visualise the layout of the chamber and just how little space they are dealing with. In a male dominated profession, she is both fierce and determined but she is also hiding a secret that highlights a downside to the job that she loves.
I am not sure what kind of research was done on this, but it certainly felt authentic and for someone who absolutely hates anyone invading my personal space I have no idea just how I would cope in such a confined space for one hour never mind four days. The pacing of the book felt slow as you become part of the countdown to the diver’s freedom yet at the same time I found that I was racing through it with each twist and turn and change in direction and an ending that was not quite what I expected. Definitely a book to go on your TBR

2.5

Somewhat of a disappointment as far as I'm concerned. The premise of a group of sat (saturation) divers starting a job in the North Sea sounds great. Claustrophobic, dangerous, unexplained deaths? What's not to love?

After an almost disastrous start the sole female diver, Ellen Brooke, and another of the six-strong crew, Andre, return to the chamber to find a crew member fighting for life. Noone has any idea what has happened and when another death occurs the suspicions begin to surface in the chamber they cannot escape.

Sounds great right? Tense, disturbing, everyone on edge? Well no. For starters you are constantly trying to work out what the terms mean (there is a glossary but none of these are terms in regular usage). I had to Google several sites to get an idea of what the living conditions were like. The divers all had real names and nicknames, which were all bandied about so much I got quite lost about who was who. Even the telling of old disastrous diving stories felt dull.

It should have been a slow burn wind-up to a stunning crescendo as the chamber reaches the docks but even when we find out what happened I still felt like I was missing some vital information. I admit I was quite bored throughout this book which I wasn't expecting. I loved Last Thing to Burn and The Passenger was good apart from the more fantastical parts at the end. For me, this book just fell a little flat at every turn. There is a twist or two but you've to wait till three quarters through for the first one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance review copy.

I’m still mentally scarred by The Last Passenger, so naturally I was excited to read Will’s latest, and discover new trauma.

Will does not disappoint. He’s clearly researched a lot in exactly what happens in this type of diving, and I learnt quite a lot. It’s not something I had heard about beforehand. The book does start out quite slowly as it is important that we readers understand exactly the situation, and the space issues before we get into the story - it just wouldn’t work if we didn’t fully understand.

I liked all of the characters- the story is told by Brooke - so naturally she was my favourite. As ever, this has you on the edge of your seat, I counted down those last 20 minutes like I was there, not realising I was practically holding my breath. As usual…I’m still guessing!

Brilliant!

My thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Two of the classic murder-mystery scenarios are “The Locked Room” (no one can enter or leave) and “Then There Were None” (people die one by one). The decompression chamber of a Diving Support Vessel (DSV) clearly qualifies as a locked room. Six divers operating under Saturation (breathing Helium Oxygen under depth pressure) conditions are being slowly decompressed in such a chamber. They have been at 100 metres depth in the middle of the North Sea. That doesn’t sound very far, but it means that they are under about 10 atmospheres pressure and that means they have to decompress for four days. Five men, Mike, Spock, Jumbo, Teabag and André (all addressed by these nicknames) and one woman, Brooke (her actual surname). Female saturation divers are few in number, which may be why they don’t need nicknames. They have all worked with each other on many dives, except for Teabag a newbie on only his second saturation dive. Conditions are cramped in what is basically a steel reinforced, cylinder about the size of a campervan, six bunks, six chairs, a table, shower/WC, service hatch (pressurised airlock) and one door (locked from the outside). Everything they need is provided through the airlock, and all waste leaves by the same route – and there is a lot of waste because keeping the interior as spotless as possible is a never-ending routine; the body’s defence mechanisms are inhibited by the pressure and the slightest contamination can have life threatening consequences. Interpersonal relationships could have similar outcomes, so ‘sat’ divers have to be equable and teams are carefully chosen and constantly monitored. Such claustrophobic conditions are stressful, but the divers are used to it. However, shortly after the decompression begins, one of them dies from no obvious cause; and then another one! Is there a malfunction somewhere in the system, or an unidentified disease, or a killer?
So this story fits both the scenarios I mentioned above. It is told by Brooke and takes the reader slowly through the 96 hours of the decompression, revealing personal histories, diving tales from around the world, and technical details (there is a helpful glossary); in fact this material takes up most of the space. Since this is a murder-mystery, the reader expects building tension, but the details keep slowing it down. We also expect a puzzle, a whodunnit, where we try to solve the mystery ahead of the investigator, for which we need clues but I couldn’t find any. The final resolution doesn’t really resolve anything – someone is definitely arrested and the murder method explained but it doesn’t feel satisfactory. Perhaps we are supposed to be left wondering?
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I always look forward to a new Will Dean & this was worth waiting for. Such a claustrophobic & thrilling read that kept me guessing right to the end. The idea for the plot & setting were inspired and I learnt a lot about saturation diving. The author built the tension nicely with lots of red herrings dropped here & there to lead you off on a different path.
Brilliant read, can't wait for the next book.

I have mixed opinions about this book which made me yo-yo from 3 and 4 stars. I had a lot of niggles, most of which were relatively minor so I managed to settle on rounding up my 3.5 to 4.
So... the epitome of a locked room... a hyperbaric chamber... containing 6 saturation divers. Working on a deep sea bed so no easily escapable from due to the bends. So the worst thing that can happen is one of their number dying. Well, maybe worse is that it appears to be murder.
So the remaining five are locked in for the remaining four days needed for safe decompression, with a dead body, in an environment very susceptible to contamination (as the author pretty much spells out on EVERY page)...
And then there's another death...
I am a big fan of this author, both his standalones and his brilliant Tuva Moodyson series and one of his favourite things to include in his books is the feeling of claustrophobia. Well... we get this in spades in this book. Can't get more closed in than what he describes the chamber to be.
Another of my niggles coming up is with the characters. They pretty much all have nicknames which means there's a mix of first names, surnames and nicknames used to identify each of them which irked me somewhat even with the list I made. Kept taking me out of the story.
But all that said, the actual thriller aspect of the book was banging. I was impressed with the way the author built up the tension and explained, for the laymen, what was happening with their job, their living quarters, their hygiene and other practicalities when you are in a chamber deep in the ocean. And their backstories added a bit of colour and character definition.
My final niggle was the ending. As with a lot of books I read I would definitely have to categorise this one along with the other - journey was better than the destination - reads. I have questions...
But yeah, a good solid read at the end of the day that is not without its faults but comes up mostly on top. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Based in a hyperbaric chamber deep in the North Sea we follow the stories of six deep sea divers who are repairing pipes deep below sea level. They plan to be down in the chamber for weeks at a time with only each other for company, before their ascent back to the surface, decompressing slowly. However, when one of them dies unexpectedly in his bunk only a short time into their mission, they have to make their way back to the surface. Beginning their ascent early, the other divers begin to suspect each other and the rest of the crew, and when another one of them dies, they begin to wonder if all of them will make it back to the surface at all.

I have to admit, this book seriously freaked me out! There were so many things which set my nerves on edge - diving to such deep levels, decompression chambers, claustrophobia, no way out...to name but a few! The author has certainly done his research and captured the tension and fear of not just the job in hand but the idea that someone (or something) on board was killing them! The book does focus mainly on one character, Ellen Brooke, an experienced saturation diver, although of course we get to know the other divers stories as the book moves on.

The book is filled with suspicion as everyone and everything gets considered as to being the killer. I really couldn't think of anything worse being stuck somewhere with no way to escape, and the fear coming from the characters ran right through to my bones! I tried to work out what was going on as I read but the author did a great job of keeping everything under wraps until the reveal, with more than one surprise at the end. This was a really good read, full of tension and suspense, but you may want to give it a miss if confined spaces aren't your thing!

Wow! I absolutely loved this book. A real page turner, I couldn’t put it down. It just hooks you right in.
Six divers are in a hyperbaric chamber. Taking it in turns they are lowered each day inside a diving bell to the sea bed to repair oil pipes. Until one of the divers is found unresponsive. It will take four days of decompression before the hatch can be opened, before the other divers can leave the chamber…
It’s so intense and chilling. It’s well written with detailed descriptions and claustrophobic setting. Just brilliant. It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions.
The characters are all well developed and interesting and I enjoyed the divers backstories, and getting to learn about the experiences and the life of a sat diver.
It’s clever and exciting but also terrifying with some twists and turns that keep you guessing right to the end.
Definitely recommend. If you like locked room mystery thriller, you’ll love this book.
Can’t wait to see what @WillDean writes next.
With thanks to #NetGallery @hodderbooks for an arc of #TheChamber in exchange for a honest review.
Book publishes 6 June 2024.