JR RO Thorp
LightNews LightNews
banner
jrthorp.bsky.social
JR RO Thorp
@jrthorp.bsky.social
720 followers 3K following 160 posts
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.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jrthorp.bsky.social
An image showing an event for a book titled Death On Ice, at Common Press Bookshop in London on 12 June.
April 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
/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
March 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
Well. What an intensely miserable honour, to be content-scraped like lichen off a rock.
March 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
An extremely beautiful tabby cat looks at the camera while lying beside a copy of Death On Ice by R.O. Thorp published by Faber.
March 6, 2025 at 12:18 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
#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
A beautiful white cat with a pink nose sits atop a copy of Death On Ice by R.O. Thorp, a mystery novel with a luxury cruise ship cracking ice across its cover.
February 13, 2025 at 9:30 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
The most jubilant walrus in all of art stares at the viewer, resplendent with tiny teeth, a feathery tail and what looks like near-human fins. It is coloured gold, for reasons that are unclear. The text underneath reads Phoca Jubata, which was a species description of the walrus before it was reclassified as Odobenus rosmarus.
February 12, 2025 at 10:18 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
February 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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.
Albrecht Dürer's drawing of a walrus head from 1521, in which a walrus looks combative from a page. The text above its head reads: "Das dozig thyr van dem ich do das hawbt conterfett hab, ist gefange worden in der niderlendischen see und was XII ellen brawendisch mit für füssen" (The animal which I have drawn this picture of was captured in the Dutch Sea and was twelve cubits in size with four feet)
February 11, 2025 at 8:43 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
Cat has curled up with full weight on literal palm of hand, writing going super well
A tortoiseshell cat has her full body blissfully inside a white woman's hand and her eyes closed beatifically
February 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
A colour lithograph in which a beautifully attired walrus in a pink and yellow suit with white shirt and purple cravat sits resplendent on an ice floe. A tiny top hat and monocle complete the look.
February 10, 2025 at 9:26 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
Book launch dress.

"The Circulating Library", 1830s lithograph from a painting by George Spratt, held in the @rijksmuseum.bsky.social collections. #BookSky #FashionSky
A coloured lithograph of a woman sitting at a table in a dress, hat and shoes entirely made up of book volumes.
February 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
The Horniman walrus sits on a white plinth against a white wall. it is a taxidermied walrus that has been extremely overstuffed, so that it has no skin folds or pouches, and resembles a sphere with fins and a very handsome tusked face.
February 9, 2025 at 7:55 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
Hoefnagel's work is a) so beautiful and b) so bonkers. I love his sloth (below). I also CANNOT WAIT for Humans: A Monstrous History.
February 9, 2025 at 7:42 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
Plate 3 from Joris Hoefnagel's book on aquatic creatures has a beautifully rendered but extremely strange walrus who resembles a sack with fur and tusks, a gorgeous set of pink and yellow sunfish, a splayed blue octopus, and another cephalopod with pink legs, eyeing the walrus with scepticism.
February 8, 2025 at 9:46 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
An extremely beautiful white cat sits on profile on an orange knitted blanket, looking at a book cover which reads 'Death on Ice' by R.O. Thorp, A Blanchard Twins Mystery, from Faber.
February 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
jrthorp.bsky.social
In 150 Characters Or Less, @nikitagill.bsky.social.
In 150 Characters Or Less by Nikita Gill. Everything is on fire, but everyone I love is doing beautiful things and trying to make life worth living, and I know I don't have to believe in everything, but I believe in that.
February 7, 2025 at 10:20 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
A chromolithograph from 1880 in which children clad in blue with bare feet whimsically attempt to brush a walrus's teeth with giant household brushes. The walrus, sitting on ice, looks benevolently upon them. Nobody in this picture is observing health and safety.
February 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
A coloured edition of an engraving of a walrus and its pup by Hessel Gerritsz. The two animals are on the sandy foreshore while a boat, several small craft, and an iceberg float offshore. The walruses are, unusually, green.
February 6, 2025 at 9:15 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
A print of three walrus. Two are clearly heartily borking at one another, while a third looks on in case anybody interrupts the borking. All three are submerged in water, with their lower halves rendered in blue to show their buoyancy.
February 5, 2025 at 9:32 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
An evocative stone carving of a walrus out of stone in black and white. The walrus is gloriously fat and looks indignant.
February 4, 2025 at 8:48 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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!
An engraving plate by Sydenham Edwards in which a variety of seal sand walruses are shown in beautiful detail, including spotted seals, common seal calves, and a walrus staring directly at the viewer with a distinctly upset and angry expression on its moustached face.
February 3, 2025 at 8:29 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
The book cover for Death On Ice by R.O. Thorp is displayed on a phone against a green background, with the Borrowbox logo in the lower right corner. The green is very Brat summer.
February 2, 2025 at 9:03 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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.
Saint Brigid, with staring eyes and unimpressed mien, looks out from a sainted glass window. She's clad in blue, with a lamp in one hand and her name spelled around her head. The window is by Irish artist Harry Clarke, one of the greatest workers in stained glass in history.
February 1, 2025 at 9:56 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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'.
A poster produced by Winnifred M. Letts and Kathleen Verschoyle for the Cuala Press in the 1920s, featuring Saint Brigid in a wide blue cloak, holding one lamb and opening her cloak for two more. The poem is not particularly good. The lambs, as lambs do, look incredibly confused.
February 1, 2025 at 9:53 AM
jrthorp.bsky.social
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
January 31, 2025 at 9:10 AM