Today we meet with a fascinating new crime fiction author. Originally from Australia, RO Thorp is based in Ireland and her first novel, printed in 2021, was about the wife of King Lear. That’s intriguing in itself, but her second book and first crime novel, Death on Ice, is even more enticing. Here we have a tale set on an Arctic research vessel which also offers rick folk the chance to take a luxury cruise and observe science as it happens. What could possibly go wrong?

One word: harpoon.

We needed to find out more before Death on Ice comes out in print next week, and so we welcome RO Thorp to the site for the first time…

Tell us about your background and how you came to write a modern, cosy crime novel?
I started out in literary fiction writing serious books as JR Thorp, and then my sophomore novel started going awry and my agent told me, sensibly, to put it away for a bit and do something else. The something else turned out to be writing a murder mystery novel to entertain my friend on maternity leave. I wrote it in 27 days, a chapter a day, and was eventually persuaded to send it to my very astonished agent. The rest is cosy crime history. 

What are crime fiction lovers going to love about Death on Ice?
It’s got all the things I love about mysteries from the Golden Age of crime: a luxury setting, delightfully flawed characters, rich people looking silly, a truly twisty mystery, humour, slightly seat-of-the-pants sleuthing, and a decent dose of romance. 

Tell us more about the twins – Rose and Finn. Who are they and how did you come up with them, and their secrets?
The twins are both marine biologists, working in the Arctic to research the Greenland shark. Finn is gentle and extremely lovely, while Rose is more practical and protective. The main characters are twins largely because the friend for whom I wrote the book was on maternity leave for her own twins, who are now three! Brother-sister sleuths are an incredibly fun combination to write, as well – nobody knows you as well as your loving siblings, or will fight so hard for you.   

And what’s the set-up?
Finn and Rose are on an unusual vessel: the Dauphin, a luxury cruise ship that doubles as a research centre for Arctic science. High-minded scientists clash with the privileged elite, the crew has its own egos, a submersible bobs around underwater looking at sea creatures – and then there’s a murder for good measure. 

There’s a harpooning. And another murder. So a bit of a sub-plot too, perhaps. Who or what are they up against?
No spoilers, but Finn and Rose are paired up with two actual police detectives, Titus and Tom, who are in the Arctic chasing after a smuggling ring. It will take all four of them to figure out what’s happening on board the Dauphin and why a particularly unpleasant scientist was found skewered on the ice… 

Tonally there are similarities to Golden Age crime novels, but we’re also in the modern age with plenty of technology. How did you balance the traditional aspects with the contemporary in the style of the writing and storytelling?
Technological advances provide both limitations and opportunities. For a fictional crime to remain a mystery, it has to evade easy solutions, like security cameras or obvious DNA evidence, in a logical way, or use them to bamboozle. For detectives, there’s now genetic testing, online footprints and all manner of other techniques to reach the truth, though our foursome will find that sometimes the little grey cells are still the best. 

We’re going to meet a lot of suspects here. Which secondary characters did you have the most fun creating?
The most fun to write was Sally Palgrave, one of those one-track minds who are almost entirely detached from reality and only resurface occasionally because they need to eat or make a penetrating remark. I’ve spent enough time around academics to know these people exist and are constantly getting in trouble. 

What are the bigger themes you wanted to address and how did you approach them in Death On Ice?
Murder mysteries can smuggle in a lot of things: social criticism, lampooning the elites, wondering whether it’s a good idea to restore the status quo by capturing a murderer at all. One of the most obvious features of Death On Ice is that it features a wide variety of queer characters of all shapes and kinds, simply living their lives and investigating and/or getting suspected of murder. Queer representation in crime fiction still has a way to go. Of course, a lot of the other issues Christie et al used in their work – the gap between rich and poor, the prison of respectability – remain horribly relevant today… 

Which other crime authors and/or books have influenced you, and what are you reading at the moment? 
I’m an enormous fan of Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh, because gentleman detectives who somehow look a little bit foolish are always incredibly entertaining. And I can recite passages of Agatha Christie by heart. Right now I’m actually not reading any crime fiction, because I’m editing Blanchard Twins Book 2, and don’t want to accidentally copy anybody’s solutions. Instead it’s Clive Oppenheimer’s Mountains of Fire on the secret lives of volcanoes! 

What’s next for RO Thorp?
There’s a second Blanchard Twins mystery in the works with Faber for 2026, in which one of the foursome (no spoilers) goes off on their own to solve a mystery solo. Though, of course, other characters from the core quartet make some helpful appearances. 

Is there anything you want to add?
The world is really grim at the moment, and this book is meant to be a slice of joy. I hope it gives people a little escapist peace, and lets them puzzle over whodunnit for a while.

Death on Ice is available in print as an ebook. Order a copy using the buttons below.

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