Are you ready for a to-die-for locked room thriller?

Todays venue: an underwater chamber for a deep sea diving crew. Six divers will descend but not all will make it back up to the surface. One by one the divers are being picked off.

All the usual questions: how? Why? And most importantly, who is behind it all?

I enjoyed this latest thriller from one of my new go to authors. He kept me guessing all the way. I was doing the usual finger pointing at everyone involved in the dive.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more tension and fear and a little less cleaning!😂 (but maybe that’s just a me thing).

This is the fourth book I’ve read from Will Dean. All his books have a bit of a different feel to them which I love. His ideas are always unique and fresh. You just never know what he will come up with next. What more could us readers ask for!?

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books

This book was utterly dull. I could not connect to any of the characters and there was so much infodumping which was quite a disappointment after how much I LOVED The Last one.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced reader's copy. This book was both exhilarating and terrifying. I don't know how anyone would be able to do this, but everyone has the capability for bravery for different things. Praise people for the ability to be in small spaces for extended periods of time AND be underwater. This is the set up for this book. Six experienced divers are taken down in what should be a routine dive for a week in a hyperbaric chamber. Usually, the divers only have to deal with the boredom of being stuck together in a tight space and away from their families, breathing in helium, and trying not to go a little stir-crazy. Not this trip. They find of the divers dead in his bunk. They can't be brought up too fast or they could die from rapid decompression sickness, but when another of the divers dies right in front of them, will they all die before they make it to the top? Who or what is killing them in their tight quarters? Terrifying as they don't know who or what to trust anymore or who will die next.

A fast paced, edge of your seat adventure thriller that hits a little too close to the events we witnessed last summer. Will Dean certainly knows how to keep you turning the pages while clutching your chest.

OMG I can’t this book had me in a chokehold I loved it so much. I love locked room mysteries and let me tell you I wanted to figure it out right along with everyone else. I tried to figure it out and couldn’t by the end of the book it was such a good twist I loved it.

This one wasn’t for me.

Honestly, much of it was a slog to get through. The small portions in which something happens or people die were interesting. The problem was that they were too few and far between. The rest of the book seemed to consist of introspection and war stories.

I mostly enjoyed our characters and didn’t find the dive-speak off putting. (I confess that I largely ignored the in-depth glossary in the front of the book. I wasn’t going to remember all of that.) I definitely admired the amount of research the writer did. I now know everything I never wanted to know about this kind of diving.

The claustrophobic atmosphere is well done, but I also found that I didn’t want to be trapped with our narrator’s thoughts.

Concept definitely better than execution.

• ARC via Publisher

The Chamber starts out very technical until about 20% in. Once it gets started, the suspense really amps up. I'm glad I stuck with it. This was one of the best settings for a locked room mystery. Ever since hearing about the submersible implosion, this kind of story has my attention. Reading about them performing autopsies under the sea was quite intriguing. It seems like the author did a lot of research in order to write this novel. It was a unique plot and setting and I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

So saturation diving is absolutely CRAZY and I have to send kudos out to all the sat divers in the world that endure these crazy conditions. Will Dean clearly put in a crazy amount of research regarding this kind of diving and the specifics surrounding it. I learned a lot and was able to confirm that I want to stay at the recreational level of scuba diving.

As for the story, this one was soooo claustrophobic and I could feel the walls closing in while reading this one. I live in a shipping container so I’m used to living with limited space, but the idea of not being able to step outside made my skin crawl.

In The Chamber, we get introduced to the concept of sat diving which is scary enough as it is. Then our FMC returns from a dive to find the rest of her team performing CPR on one of the other divers. When a second person in the chamber experiences similar symptoms - the remaining divers realize these might not be accidents after all…..

What follows is a trip into paranoia and self-preservation as the remaining divers try to stick it out until The Chamber can be safely opened. I didn’t ~love~ the ending of this one which is my reason for 4 stars, but still highly recommend for fans of diving, thrillers, mysteries, and books that close in on you as you read!

**Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC of this unique title!!**

The setting for this book is so unique and honestly something I didn’t even know existed. The premise of the book follows six saturation divers locked in a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber is cramped and barely enough space to move around with 3 sets of bunks. They are on day one of their dive when things start to go bad and they find one of their own dead in his bunk. The dive is quickly aborted but they must go through 4 days of decompression before getting back on land and finding out what happened to their friend and coworker.

The unique setting was so intriguing but almost required so much explaining and technical jargon that it took up a majority of the book. Once I had my head wrapped around the setting, I could really feel the claustrophobia setting in. The thick helium, the stress, and the eventually not being able to trust their food and drink would be enough to make anyone lose it. It was interesting to get to hear the dive stories from the different characters, but it did start to feel repetitive towards the end. Overall, a cool premise but still unsure how I feel about the ending. The author definitely has kept me guessing till that last page.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC.
This book was drawn out and slow. I wanted this to be a DNF, but I stuck to it hoping it would get better. It didn’t.
6 divers in a small compartment. One by one, they start to die. My first problem was, I couldn’t visualize exactly all that was going on. Yes, there is a “picture” of the chamber where they stay, the wet pot, diving bell and so on, but for some reason, my brain couldn’t understand all the aspects of the story. For example, how did the saturation diver come out of the water and into the diving bell with the diver’s feet still in the water? Sounds confusing to me, but in my mind, I couldn’t understand a diver going from outside to inside without filling the whole diving bell with water. I think this book would be better with more descriptive pictures and/or descriptive words throughout the book. My brain needs more explanation on how things work.
And that ending! It was like a kick in the face. I was holding out for the ending - A way for the author to make a redemption. Rather, the ending just solidified my 1 star rating. It fell flat and needed way more explaining! Way more!
All in all, this book had great potential, but it fell super flat for me.

OMG!! Will Dean never disappoints! The twists and turns had me gripping the edge of my seat. I enjoyed being given this ARC. The character development was good. If you like thrillers, you will love this book!

I loved this book and Will Dean is a master of the genre . He writes believable characters and plot with such skill that her draws you in . I didn’t know anything about saturation divers so I learned a great deal about that . Overall a wonderful book
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review book


Overall this was a good cozy mystery but I found the main storyline far fetched and not believable . It seemed like I was reading a comedy version of the TV series using same premise
I found it slow and it didn’t hold my interest most likely because I don’t believe in ghosts
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review book

Will Dean's novels were some of my first forays into the suspense/thriller genre and I can honestly say I've enjoyed/loved each new release just as much as his last, if not more. Which is why I'm certain that I will absolutely have a twisty good time with this one! Thank you to NG and the publisher for this opportunity!!

Upon learning about this book , my attention was immediately grabbed. Learning about saturation divers was new for me! I was truly intrigued and wanted to learn more on this topic. The setting of this book is unlike any other I have ever read. There is a good bit of technical details throughout. In the beginning this was hard to follow but did become easier. At other times, I found myself skimming to get past the diving details or chamber details to learn more about the actual story line. The characters names and nicknames was a bit tricky to follow. I kept asking myself who was who. However , for readers who enjoy a captive situation in their reads ; this book delivers. A quick , fast paced read that reaffirms why Will Dean is a repeat author to red for so many!

This gripping novel throws six divers into a high-stakes scenario as they are locked in a pressurized chamber at the bottom of the North Sea for a month. The tense and claustrophobic setting sets the stage for a thrilling locked room mystery, where trust is scarce and danger lurks in the depths. Written with a fast-paced and immersive style, the story captivates with its escalating tension and atmospheric underwater world. As the divers grapple with physical and psychological challenges, suspicions mount and the countdown to a heart-pounding conclusion begins. The author's meticulous research shines through, lending authenticity to the nail-biting narrative. Overall, this locked room mystery is a compelling and addictive page-turner, with a satisfying and enigmatic ending that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the author's next venture. Highly recommended for fans of the genre. Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review this thrilling ARC.

Whew, this was a wild ride! It took a minute to get past all of the technical jargon related to diving, but I couldn't put this one down. Still not my favorite from this author, but recommend for a suspenseful, breath-holding thriller!

Received an arc of this book and was super excited! The chamber follows 6 divers deep down in the ocean working for a month. They can’t leave, and have to depend on others for survival, then they start dying one by one. This book started off with a bang and I was really enjoying it. At about the 70% point it was dragging on, and I did not care for the ending. Maybe I just didn’t understand it? This book left me with more questions than answers.

Content warning for vilification of mental illness: The POV character has intrusive thoughts and throughout the book it’s framed as something we should be afraid and suspicious of, how at any moment she could *gasp* act on those thoughts and kill all her coworkers. It’s pretty offensive!

I went in hoping for ‘life threatening problems, deep under the sea’, and instead it was people in a decompression chamber *on a boat* for 4 days, telling war/trauma stories to keep their mind off the whole ‘their coworker’s corpse is just Also Here for decompression’ thing. We only get one dive before the death that kicks everything off happens! Extremely little spooky ocean content, and extremely high amounts of “Imagine being in a small room...”

Overall, the slow pacing and repetitiveness kept me from really being immersed in the claustrophobia and paranoia, and the reveal/ending was very underwhelming.

(Also I don’t know if I missed something, but this is set in the early 2000’s, but it’s revealed so slowly and far in the book that it felt like it was supposed to be a twist. ????)

Yet another amazing book by Will Dean that I would recommend. Ellen is a saturation diver who goes to the depths of the oceans to help out. She is along with 5 other men in this tiny locked up chamber that has to be kept closed the entire time. If you're claustrophobic, this would not be ideal for you but highly suspicious acts are going on. What happens? Will Ellen be okay? Read to find out!

Thanks to Net Galley for an arc of this book. Six saturation divers go to the floor of the North Sea to make repairs on an oil drill. They are performing one of the most dangerous and deadly jobs in the world. They are in a very small chamber with barely room to move around. Ellen is the only female diver on board and has lots of experience. She is grateful to suit up and take a walk out on the bottom of the ocean just to escape that tight capsule they are living in for the next four months. After six hours she finally is taken back up to the vessel to find one of her companion divers dying on the floor. A claustrophobic read that will keep you guessing until the end. The Chamber by Will Dean comes out in August 2024. 3.75 stars