/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
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.
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
I'm excited to share my review for Death on Ice by RO Thorp #mystery #cosymystery #newrelease #DeathOnIce
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
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.
#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
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.
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
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)
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Gorgeous walrus and other marine critters! Another page from Hoefnagel’s volumes is reproduced in my new book, Humans: A Monstrous History. But follow @jrthorp.bsky.social for more walruses and a murder mystery, #DeathOnIce! #books
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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
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.
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!
A vertical panel of sea, in which a friendly ray waves, another dives, and three puffer fish gently meander down the bottom right.
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
A very beautiful white cat sits on top of a paperback of Death On Ice by R.O. Thorp.
A bonus to pre-ordering a physical copy of #DeathOnIce for 13 Feb: it's the perfect size for your cat to sit upon and Judge You.
(Jutta, sweetest animal alive, has Chronic Gargoyle Syndrome, in that she constantly looks like she's about to sing backing on a villain's theme song.)
#CatsOfBlueSky
A tortoiseshell cat looks alarmed while lying on cobalt fabric, as a book with the title Death On Ice looms behind her.
Hildegard reminds you for #Caturday that #DeathOnIce is available for preorder in paperback NOW from your local bookshop, debuting on 13th Feb, and is also available on Kindle and Audible (country dependent).
Hildegard doesn't know who did the murder. Stop asking her.
#CatsOfBlueSky #CatSky
Three men in three-piece suits and hats, one with a cigarette and another with a pipe, hold onto each other and laugh while attempting to ice skate on a frozen lake. It is 1912 and the Cork Lough has frozen over.
Had a brilliant time talking to @irishexaminer.bsky.social this morning about #DeathOnIce, Ireland's amazing Basic Income For The Arts, and why Cork is deeply, profoundly, in its bones, better than Dublin. Facts, like. #corcaigh
Image of men skating on the Lough in 1912, from Old Photos Of Cork.
#DeathOnIce is on Kindle and Audible now! Read the book an enraged reviewed described as 'a vehicle for the trans agenda'!
Pictured: a plausible vehicle for the #transagenda (Reuben Jasper Spalding's flying machine, 1889, from Internet Archive)
www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Ice-MU...
Get a peek at the first chapter of #DeathOnIce now, exclusively for Goldsboro Books @goldsborobooks.bsky.social!
goldsborobooks.com/blogs/crime-...
Two cats, a beautiful tortoiseshell and a white, lying on a red rug on a wooden floor. A fire glows just out of frame. The white has her head lovingly on the tortoiseshell's butt.
Hildegard von Bingen and Jutta would like to encourage you to
a) buy from indie bookstores & sign up for local libraries,
b) support local queer spaces,
c) sit on the butts of your loved ones,
d) pre-order #DeathOnIce, out 13.2.2025,
e) resume butt-sitting.
#CatsofBlueSky #CatSky #FelineBookPromo
The cover to Death On Ice by R.O. Thorp, published in Faber, covered in decals of Arctic and other marine animals by the author, who has no business doing anything of the sort.
Pssst! Want an addition to your 2025 book club reading list?Queer romance? Arctic walruses, Greenland sharks, plus a misbehaving manta ray? There's cosy mystery ahoy on #DeathOnIce, coming from @faberbooks.bsky.social the day before Valentine's Day!
#CosyMurder #MurderMystery #BooksIn2025 #BookSky
(...psssst- if you'd rather stay inside on NYE and live in the UK/IRE, might I suggest #DeathOnIce on Kindle/Audible? Murder! Twins! Queer romance! Puns! Rich people being awful! Greenland sharks! How could fireworks ever compete.)
www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Ice-MU... #BookSky #BookSky
Thank you lovely pals @faberbooks.bsky.social for sending #DeathOnIce by #ROThorp plus cool ice cube tray ♥️🧊
One murder. Two scientists. A boat-load of suspects 👏🏽
Coming February 🙌🏽
The front page of a book reading A Blanchard Twins Mystery: Death On Ice, with a signed book plate by the author, R.O. Thorp, rests on a table. Above it, there's the butt and tail of a pure white cat.
Here's what a book plate is!
@faberbooks.bsky.social sends its authors beautiful plates for us to sign. The plates are then affixed to the front of your delicious new book! Pictured: a shiny new book plate in its eventual home. (And Jutta's butt. Butta.)
#catsofbluesky #DeathOnIce #cosymystery
EXCITEMENT: the official #DeathOnIce book plates have arrived from Faber! As pictured, they come in two cat varieties: burnt toast and white bread.
(They don't, but I WILL be signing them all, which is... almost as good.)
#catsofbluesky #bookplates #murdermystery #faberbooks #cosymystery #BookSky
