The Chamber by Will Dean @willrdean @KeeleyHelen @SimonAudio

the setup…
Ellen Brooke is a saturation diver and her current job is aboard the Deep Topaz, 28 days in the depths of the North Sea with five other divers in a small pressurized chamber. She’s the only woman on the dive, one of the few in this business, and she’s gained the respect in that community. Shortly after they begin the current mission, one of the divers is found dead in his bunk. Despite their efforts to revive him, he’s gone and his death is inexplicable. It takes four days to decompress before the chamber can be opened. But then another diver dies. And then another. What is killing them? Who’s behind it and how? Is it another diver or someone above responsible for their supplies and lifelines?

the heart of the story…
It’s Ellen’s point of view and I wasn’t even sure if she was a reliable narrator, which made this even more challenging. At first I thought the killer had to be another diver but there are others outside that chamber who could have been responsible….the doctor, the food preparers, dive operations management. It was truly puzzling and the psychological states of the divers in the chamber are precarious on a good day and this was enough to bring them to madness.

the narration…
If ever a story could benefit from multiple narrators, this would certainly qualify but Helen Keeley was amazing in her ability to provide voice distinctions, including many accents. Her storytelling skills were superb.

the bottom line…
I knew little about this kind of diving before this story and was in awe of the protocols for this kind of exploration. The research was impeccable and I decided to not try to absorb it all. It was enough to understand what these divers were experiencing and the plausibility of various scenarios. This was the ultimate in locked room mysteries, confounding me at every juncture. There’s also a pretty big twist that I figured out. But….that ending!!??!!

Book Info

• Release Date: August 6, 2024
• Narrator: Helen Keeley
• Audio Length: 9 hours, 12 minutes
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

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(Thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)