Today’s feature is Will Dean, who joins us to talk about his latest thriller, The Chamber. Set in a hyperbaric chamber, six saturation divers find themselves under a mysterious threat. It’s as claustrophobic as you can imagine (and, trust me, you’ll learn a lot about saturation diving).
In the interview to follow, Will and I talk about his research process, writing thrillers, and more. Dive on in.
Sleuths! Connect with Will on Instagram, X, and YouTube. Grab a copy of The Chamber here.
Hi Will, thanks so much for joining! The Chamber follows six experienced saturation divers locked inside a hyperbaric chamber—a routine job, until one of them is found dead. Reading this felt like I was diving alongside these characters (cue the claustrophobia). With such a specific premise, how did you prepare to write the book? What kind of research into saturation diving did you do?
Thanks for having me. The Chamber is And Then There Were None meets The Last Breath. The research was intense. I am quite a hermit (living off-grid in a Swedish forest) and I tend to disappear down rabbit holes when I discover an interesting niche or unknown world. Saturation diving is such a subject. I researched every aspect of this profession (the apex of the diving world: breathing gas, living at pressure for twenty-eight days at a time, working to maintain oil infrastructure on the seabed) intensely for many, many months.
My books are always character-driven, focusing on the psychology of the characters, but with The Chamber I knew I had to get the technical details correct (or as correct as I could) to build a sense of authenticity, and also a strong sense of place. I like my readers to feel utterly immersed (if you’ll excuse the pun) in the imaginary world I create. That being said, 95 percent of my research didn’t make it into the final book, but it’s essential for me to understand which 5 percent to include.
The Chamber has two unique constraints: a cramped and isolated location, and a four-day countdown. How did you approach plotting a mystery to work within these constraints? Can you compare this setup to those of your other books?
I relish constraints. They help me to visualise the story, removing the temptation for extraneous characters and locations. Constraints help me to go deep on character, and they help readers to truly believe in the setting.
With The Chamber the constraints are pretty extreme (I was born in the late ’70s so stories like Alien, The Martian, Misery, and Das Boot were important to me). The six main characters spend almost all of the novel locked inside a chamber the size of a minibus. Six bunks, one table, two benches. They breathe heliox and they cannot leave, not even if there’s a major problem. After the first body is found they start an emergency decompression process.
It will take four days.
And that’s only the beginning of their problems.
This setting certainly gave me challenges regarding how a possible perpetrator can act without being detected. It pushed me.
Most of my other books are set in remote or closed-off locations. The Last Thing to Burn (Misery meets Room) takes place in a tiny isolated farm cottage. First Born is set in Manhattan (which can feel claustrophobic thanks to its vertiginous buildings). The Last One takes place on an ocean liner (minus all the passengers) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My Tuva Moodyson series (Fargo meets Twin Peaks meets Fleabag) takes place in a small town in a remote area of Sweden, and that town is usually cut off to outsiders by snow and ice.
I like to stretch myself.
I also like to scare myself.
Ellen Brooke is the sole narrator of the book, and the sole woman diver in the group. Why did you choose to write from Ellen’s perspective? What elements of her character make her a good diver, and a good narrator for a thriller?
I’m a visual writer. When I had the idea for The Chamber (just before I fell asleep one night) I ‘saw’ a locked door with a round window. I looked inside and saw a woman and I understood immediately that she was both extremely proficient, and terrified. I wanted to know why. I didn’t know at that point if she was in a prison, on the International Space Station, or in a diving chamber.
The story unfolded, in my mind, over the coming weeks and months. I’m a fast writer in one sense (my first drafts take three to five weeks, which I do not recommend), but I am also a very slow writer. I need a long lead-up, with plenty of time for visualisation and day-dreaming. I require that time in order to build up the bare minimum amount of confidence to face a blank screen and write that first line.
What draws you to thrillers, as a genre? What is the most difficult aspect of writing crime, and what is the most exhilarating?
I read all genres. Some people don’t think my books even qualify as thrillers. I don’t know about that but I do like stories which cross genres and stretch conventions. I adore tension. It’s what keeps me reading or watching or listening. Hitchockian tension. I crave intense suspense. I don’t need violence or action but I do need a protagonist I care about and a sensation that something is not quite right.
The most difficult aspect of writing crime, or writing anything, is (for me) the transfer process from mind to page. I can ‘see’ and ‘feel’ a story for years. It will crystalize and take on a life of its own and become clear. The characters will feel real, and the relationships will genuinely move me. And then when I write it down I might lose 30 percent of that beautiful, perfect, ephemeral idea. Plot, character, theme, prose, pacing: all difficult. But the biggest challenge is achieving a high degree of fidelity during that three-to-five week transfer process.
Lastly, what’s next for you? Is there anything you’re currently working on that you’re looking forward to?
I have a book out in November (Ice Town) – a standalone Tuva Moodyson book. I’m also busy with several screen adaptations of my work. I’m working on my 2025 book (in the same vein as The Last Thing to Burn – think Demon Copperhead meets Sleeping with the Enemy meets Shutter Island). And the 2026 book is currently marinating in my head (I’m about to start the first draft). I can’t talk about it yet but I suspect it will challenge me on a whole other level. I’m equal parts terrified and excited.
Let the transfer process begin.
Thanks so much to Will for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.