The Chamber: A Novel

"The third of the books shortlisted for the title of best 2025 thriller was Will Dean’s claustrophobic The Chamber (published in the UK as One at a Time ). It has a brilliant concept: six deep-sea divers are locked together inside a diving bell, or an underwater hyperbaric chamber. When one of their number is found dead in his bunk, it’s clear that the murderer is among them—but there’s no escape: it will take four uncomfortable days of decompression before they can leave the room. Until then, they must stay alert—or risk being unalived. We love a high-concept plot here at Five Books , and what a great idea: perhaps the highest pressure locked-room mystery yet? As a reader, you will also learn a great deal about the technicalities of saturation diving, a fascinating and extremely hazardous profession ."