JR RO Thorp
I write things: literary fiction (LEARWIFE 2021 Canongate), murder mysteries (DEATH ON ICE Faber 2025, the first in the Blanchard Twins Mysteries) and libretti, lyrics, bits of song. Agent: Claire Conrad at Janklow & Nesbit.
- /reappears briefly - I'll be at @capitalcrime.bsky.social in London at 11.40am on 13 June, doing an event about chilly crimes in cold climes. Come heckle me about Finn/show me your #DeathOnIce photos in person/throw walruses onto the stage. #capitalcrime25 www.capitalcrime.org/tickets /disappears
- Well. What an intensely miserable honour, to be content-scraped like lichen off a rock.
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpfamily favorite peaches, painted by mary daisy arnold, 1911
- Last night in People Are Great, Actually: Spouse runs a pub in Ireland, & a non-Irish man was introduced to the idea of a 'pub quiz'. FASCINATION ENSUED. "Where do you get questions?" "We write them!" "What do you mean? You think, 'I know this, I wonder who else does??'" He's quizzing next week.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpIn other breaking news, magnolias are in full bloom around here.
- Because my readers are Fantastic & Understand Priorities, I now have a flood of #DeathOnIce images with pets. Big pets small pets cat babies dog babies. OUTSTANDING WORK. If you have a copy & an animal, please continue this holy trend. (If no animal? Borrow animal!) #CatSky #BookSky #CatsofBlueSky
- tinyurl.com/YPostBookRev... "With a twisting plot which quickly runs into deep trouble, some entertaining personality clashes, and lots of dark secrets popping up through the frigid air, Death on Ice is overflowing with cool, contemporary vibes... Don’t miss the boat!"
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpim deadly serious here this is a 14th century illustration of a horse dying and going to hell
- Me in @irishexaminer.bsky.social on sophomore syndrome and cosy crime! "The level that you have to write at to make sure that you are entertaining and also baffling people who know and love all of these stories back to front is considerable." www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar...
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpBookshop.org seems to have a 15% off code: LOVEBOOKSELLERS.
- On how I wrote a book in 27 days to entertain a friend on maternity leave and ended up working with @faberbooks.bsky.social's incredible Crime team: A Blanchard Twins Tale
- 'It turns out that, as in most things, my teenage self was wrong. Writing does not require bleeding from anything to be joyous, or entertaining, or good' R.O. Thorp on how writing what you love, out of love, can lead on to great things 💙📚 www.writing.ie/interviews/r... @faberbooks.bsky.social
- I talked to the deeply lovely @swordsandsapphics.bsky.social about writing a novel in 27 days, the difference between writing literary and crime fiction, and why queer representation is so important in your nan's fave cosy murder mystery novels. Have a read here: tinyurl.com/ROThorpSSP
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpI'm excited to share my review for Death on Ice by RO Thorp #mystery #cosymystery #newrelease #DeathOnIce
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpOver on my blog I’ve a Q&A with R O Thorp. Her new book Death on Ice is out today from @faberbooks.bsky.social fromfirstpagetolast.wordpress.com/2025/02/13/r...
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpDeath on Ice by R. O. Thorp – a review BLOG TOUR When Faber and Faber got in touch to invite me onto the blog tour for one of their new debut authors of course I said yes! Death on Ice by R. O. Thorp introduces us to the Blanchard twins, Rose and Finn. They are marine biologists who are on a…
- Reposted by JR RO Thorp🛳️'A brilliant modern cosy.' Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants 🛳️'How can something so damn cold be so damn cosy?' Oskar Jensen, author of Helle and Death Death on Ice by R. O. Thorp is out now from all good bookshops 🛳️ faber.co.uk/product/97805713865…
- To celebrate #DeathOnIce coming out today with @faberbooks.bsky.social, here's me doing a Q&A with the brilliant @janetemson.bsky.social about whether I plan my books (um), poetry, writing as joy, and ridiculous green teas. fromfirstpagetolast.wordpress.com/2025/02/13/r... #BookSky #BookBirthday
- #DeathOnIce IS OUT TODAY with @faberbooks.bsky.social! Find it at all your fave bookshops: Waterstones tinyurl.com/4s4keuuk W.H. Smith tinyurl.com/387vhkzh Foyles tinyurl.com/7zk4pzta Blackwells tinyurl.com/3d64ukwk Dubray tinyurl.com/4jw5aywn Hatchards tinyurl.com/39mn9e5h #BookSky #CatSky
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpWhy would you make your narrator unreliable. I trusted you and purchased this book and this is how you repay me
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: DAY TEN! Out tomorrow! THIS IS MY VERY FAVOURITE WALRUS IN ART. It's by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel Schreber (1739-1810). Thanks to all the lovely early readers of #DeathOnIce! MY WALRUS SMILES UPON YOU
- Reposted by JR RO Thorp“Pardon the pun, but Franklin seems to have seen the forest through the trees…”—I am so thrilled @sciam.bsky.social says my #FranklinStove book is one of its 10 most anticipated microhistories for 2025 (and a pun is pretty much always forgivable)
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpToday is International Day of Women & Girls in Science. Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her contributions have left an indelible mark on the world of science & health & continue to inspire generations of scientists & innovators. 🔬 #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day nine! Albrecht Dürer's walrus from 1521, held in the British Museum, is justly famous, partly because the walrus appears crazed with bloodlust. Are the walruses in #DeathOnIce also crazed? PREORDER TO FIND OUT.
- Cat has curled up with full weight on literal palm of hand, writing going super well
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpA Mechanical Galleon 1580x1590 from Augsburg (British Museum) An amazing automaton, it even played music.
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day 8! This 'Old Man Walrus' is a 1913 colour lithograph by MT 'Penny' Ross, a cartoonist and one of Walt Disney's earliest collaborators. Would not vote this walrus into power, is clearly the 1%. #BookSky #WalrusSky
- Book launch dress. "The Circulating Library", 1830s lithograph from a painting by George Spratt, held in the @rijksmuseum.bsky.social collections. #BookSky #FashionSky
- Spread far and wide.
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day 7! This is A MOST FAMOUS WALRUS: The Horniman Walrus (1880s) in @hornimanmuseum.bsky.social in London, beloved for being egregiously overstuffed by zealous taxidermists. What a gent. No notes. #BookSky #WalrusSky
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpA little wombat indulgence. 🖼️ The Mammals of Australia. Illustrated by Miss Harriett Scott, and Mrs. Helena Forde. Sydney, 1871
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day six! Yes, that's a walrus. It's Plate 3 from towering Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel's Animalia Aqvatilia et Cochiliata, in his Book Of Four Elements (1575-82). Dignified? No. Accurate? Also no. #BookSky #ArtSky
- Me: Jutta, #DeathOnIce is coming out NEXT THURSDAY. Jutta: Mrrrrrr. Me: Yes, it is very exciting. Jutta: Mrrrr? Me: Yes, you will get treats on publication day. Jutta at volume of jet engine: MRRRRRRRRRRMPH. Preorder from @faberbooks.bsky.social! #BookSky #cosymysteries #CatSky #CatsOfBlueSky
- In 150 Characters Or Less, @nikitagill.bsky.social.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpPrehistoric #baby feeding vessels: marvellous feeding vessels in the shape of #animals from Vösensorf and Oberleis, Austria, dating 1200-800 BC. Baby bottles in the shape of animals are common in late Bronze and early Iron Age Europe. Photo: Wien Museum 🏺 #archaeology
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day five! A chromolithograph from the 1880 picture book Dream of the Zoo in which malevolent urchins try to brush a walrus's tusks. Dental health is important. So is staying clear of urchins. #BookSky #ArtSky
- Reposted by JR RO Thorp[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpVisit our site today and meet new crime fiction author RO Thorp @jrthorp.bsky.social Next week, her novel Death on Ice hits the shelves - a contemporary cosy mystery set on a research vessel in the Arctic, with a Golden Age vibe to it... crimefictionlover.com/2025/02/inte...
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day four! This engraving of a walrus in Svalbard, Norway, is by travelling Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz (1591 - 1632). The colouring was done later. Walruses, to be clear, are not green. #BookSky #ArtSky
- diva-magazine.com/2025/02/05/d... Proud to be in DIVA mag today talking about queerness, the mystery genre, power & the status quo. "Murder mysteries restore order after somebody violates it – but if the order isn’t one that loves queer rights and delights, should we restore it at all?"
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpMorning in the Village after Snowstorm by Kazimir Malevich, 1912 botfrens.com/collections/212/con…
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social: day three! This divine print, Three Walrus, is by Inuk illustrator Sheouak Petaulassie (1918-1961). The original English word for a walrus was a morse. Which is why they are such good inspectors. #BookSky #ArtSky
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpThis is VERY good news. Love bookshop.org and all the stuff they do! www.salon.com/2025/01/28/b...
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpfrench pinup artists were on a different level
- TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES for DEATH ON ICE: Day two! This stone sculpture of a walrus by contemporary Indigenous artist Noah Kudluk is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. LOOK AT HIM FACE. Why walruses? Read the book on 13 Feb to find out... #ArtSky #BookSky #WalrusSky
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpHere’s what I read or listened to in January. I listened to A Frightfully Fatal Affair and didn’t actually do any journaling in Words to Live By but read through it. I loved the previous Emily Wilde books so had to start that as soon as it arrived. What was your favourite read in January? #booksky📚
- Ten days til publication of #DeathOnIce by @faberbooks.bsky.social means TEN DAYS OF WALRUSES. This glorious engraving plate from Welsh illustrator Sydenham Edwards (1768-1819), in the @wellcomecollection.bsky.social , shows a walrus clearly experiencing severe existential terror. Relatable!
- Are you on BorrowBox, which lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free (nada) (nothing) (zilch)? Death On Ice is their book of the day today! NO spoilers for people waiting for the paperback on 13 Feb, please. Install for free here- iOS: shorturl.at/PP7Vh Android: shorturl.at/THD75
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpWishing all a happy Février.
- A much less impressed Saint Brigid for #SaintBrigidsDay: Harry Clarke's version in stained glass, at the chapel at Castletownshend, Ireland. She may be bringing spring, but she doesn't WANT to.
- Happy #SaintBrigidsDay & #Imbolc! This poster print was commissioned in the 1920s by Cuala Press, an all-female Irish arts & crafts cooperative, from artist Kathleen Verschoyle and poet Winnifred M. Letts. No comment on 'little furry folk'.
- "Economic growth is downstream from something more important yet intangible: the human desire for flourishing... People have moved for many reasons, but always because they sought something they wanted that they could not get at home. It’s an act of faith... kindled by the fire of human aspiration."
- We think the world will always be how it is now. But I think we need to imagine a world in which there are too few migrants, and many more nations competing to attract them. This is the first in a series I'll be publishing about global migration. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/o...
- DEATH ON ICE now out in under two weeks, CRIKEY MOSES, pre-order now, here's my list of Golden Age Mysteries with a dash of romance for Bookshop.org uk.bookshop.org/lists/r-o-th...
- Listen. Listen, it's Friday. Jutta can see you've been trying hard. She believes in you. In your strength. In your capacity to care. She adores you and wishes you well. Keep going. (Unless you're a fascist. She hates those.) (That's what the purr means.) #CatsOfBlueSky #CatSky
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpToday in academic publishing of the past.
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpsummer bellflower apples, painted by mary daisy arnold, 1928
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpMeanwhile in France
- France will introduce lessons in gender equality and consent into the curriculum for children and youth in both public and private schools. It will include age-appropriate discussions around gender identity and biological sex. trans-express.lgbt/p... #transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
- GONG HEI FAT CHOI! Happy #LunarNewYear! To celebrate #YearOfTheSnake, here's Maria Sibylla Merian's tree boa, drawn from life in 1705. She divorced her husband and sailed from the Netherlands to Suriname unchaperoned to illustrate its wildlife. Merian RULED. #ArtSky #ScienceSky
- Have YOUR sleeping habits been disrupted by Trying To Figure Out Who Did The Arctic-Based Crimes? YOU MAY BE OWED coffee/sugar/an apology from the author. Death On Ice, out 13 Feb in paperback with @faberbooks.bsky.social! #BookSky
- 💙📚 #BookSky 28: Death on Ice - RO Thorp. Out in February, this is a brilliantly written classic-style mystery with vibrant characters. Been a long time since I stayed up reading until 4 am because I needed to know whodunnit.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpUhhh, hi! It's me, Bookshop.org, a place to buy books online where every purchase financially supports indie bookstores instead of some billionaire.
- Reposted by JR RO Thorp‘Like Murder She Wrote in the Arctic with sharks!!!’ Kitty Murphy Death on Ice, the delightful cosy mystery from R. O. Thorp is out 13 February! To celebrate, the author has put together a list of Golden Age mysteries with a little romance over on @bookshop_org_UK 🛳️ uk.bookshop.org/lists/…
- Look, sometimes Monday's energy is proofreading your article on Sapphic representation in murder mysteries, guided by Maggie Smith being CONSTANTLY HOUNDED BY STRAIGHTNESS in Death On The Nile (1978). Look at her. Judging you. Your temerity. Your lack of perfectly tailored evening wear.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpMorning all. Photograph by Frank Martin. Charles Tumbridge riding through Kensal Rise, West London with his dog Susie in her sidecar kennel, 1962.
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpcame across this tweet in the wild, everyone loves the wine-dark sea
- An astonishing long read for everybody this Sunday: the passionate, secret campaign to award an imprisoned journalist the Nobel Peace Prize, to try and save his life. magazine.atavist.com/the-good-tra...
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpAlbert Alberg's Frost Flowers on the Window (1899) communicates a “new, truly great discovery”, that frost is able to make “ice photographs”, expressing the form of objects near it — publicdomainreview.org/collection/f... (Image: ca. 1905 photograph of frost by Wilson Bentley)
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpPreparing mass layoffs of civil servants in order to replace them with loyalists is another move from the authoritarian playbook www.politico.com/news/2025/01...
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpTHE meme of 2025 for me.
- If you follow an account that celebrates women's achievements, on any platform, in any arena: make sure they include trans women, deliberately and with joy. If not, ask why. 'Woman Seen From the Back' by Onésipe Aguado, approx. 1862. #transrights #transwomenarewomen #transmenaremen
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpParadiso, Canto XIV. Dante and Beatrice move into the fifth heaven — an illustration from 1880 by Gustave Doré, who died three years later #onthisday in 1883. More Dante illustrations by Doré (and others) here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/d... #otd
- Jutta closely monitoring Storm Eowyn in Cork. Hoping she'll be hired by Met Eireann @meteireann.bsky.social; meteorological skills include 'yelling at owner to make the wind stop', 'frantic purring', and 'staring at bird feeder wondering why no birds in 85kmph wind gusts'. #CatSky #CatsOfBlueSKy
- 'Barbette Dressing', Man Ray, 1926. Barbette was a Texas-born trapeze artist and vaudeville star who dominated 1920s-30s Paris nightlife, dazzled Jean Cocteau, and would choreograph Some Like It Hot. His high-wire act's end: removing his flapper wig with a smile. #LGBTQIAhistory #alwaysbeenhere
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpThis week's #ThirtiesThursday garment is this late 1930s rainbow printed silk crepe chiffon dress with a full skirt. The wide straps are pleated into the draped, twisted bodice and also drape into crossover back panels. Sold by Augusta Auctions. #Fashionhistory
- Farewell to the inimitable Michael Longley. One of my favourites of his.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpStarting today, same-sex marriage is officially legalized in Thailand. It’s the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality.
- New favourite ray image: 'Stingray & Puffer Fish', Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), one of the luminaries of ukiyo-e printing in Japanese art. Woodblock print from approx 1837. (Love rays? THERE'S A MANTA RAY IN #DEATHONICE. She causes PROBLEMS.) #ArtSky #JapaneseArt @curiousordinary.bsky.social
- Reposted by JR RO Thorpgrapefruits, painted by amanda almira newton, 1911
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpIf you want to read a new book coming out but don't want to buy it, a great thing you can do is ask your local library to order it. The more requests they get, the more likely they are to acquire it and then lots of people will get to read it who othewise wouldn't.
- Reposted by JR RO ThorpI suspect this is because the “murder mystery” format as developed in Victorian fiction is an attempt to impose rational order on chaos, and so creates the illusion that someone is in control, that someone will fix this mess, even if everything except the murder mystery is batshit. It’s reassurance.
- To cope with The World, my friends and I are compiling local terms for frog song from all the multilingual people we know. Current faves: +Korean: gae gool gae gool +Polish: kum kum +Turkish: vrak vrak Bonus points to the Icelandic person who responded: "... but my country doesn't have frogs?"
