International bestselling author Anna Snoekstra returns home for her latest audio thriller
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When international bestselling author Anna Snoekstra visited Canberra to research her new audio thriller, The End of the Ski Season, she was shocked – and excited – to see how much her childhood home had changed.
From walking through the Fyshwick Markets to exploring Dairy Road, the evolution of Canberra from her youth in the early 2000s, from what she describes as a ‘small town’ into the ‘city’ it is today, the brief trip back at the end of 2024 brought back all of Anna’s treasured childhood memories of growing up in the capital.
And now, as she prepares for the launch of The End of the Ski Season, she says that it was her deep personal connection to Canberra that profoundly shaped both the setting and atmosphere of her latest thriller.
From struggling reader to suspense writer
Spending her youth in the south of Canberra, it was during her primary school years that she realised that she wanted to be an author – although her career had a bumpy start.
Growing up with hearing issues, for the first few years of her school life, Anna struggled to keep up with her peers, suffering from speech impediments and unable to read until Year 2, which impacted her self-confidence.
She says that it was thanks to the hard work of her primary school teachers that she finally caught up – and once Anna started to read, nothing could slow her down.
“I was lucky, I went to a public school and public schools in Canberra are incredible, and I had some amazing teachers who worked with me one-on-one,” she says.
“When the reading and writing finally clicked, it clicked really fast. I went from not being able to do it at all to reading junior chapter books. I skipped the picture book phase.”
When Anna started writing, her teachers were shocked. Perceived as a quiet, shy girl, it turned out that she had a dark imagination as the words that flowed onto the page showed signs of her talent for suspense, thriller and mystery writing.
“I couldn’t write a sentence, and then I was suddenly writing stories set in the 17th century with a little boy waking up to blood coming down the walls of his house,” Anna says with a laugh.
“It was a funny thing, and I feel very lucky because I did feel ashamed not being able to read and write… these big stories and ideas I was dealing with in my head became something I could express through writing. Pretty soon after that, I got it in my head that I was going to be a writer.”
Moving to Melbourne to follow her dream of being an author, her debut novel Only Daughter was published in 2016. Set in Canberra, the novel was met with praise, with the rights for a movie bought by Universal Pictures.
Publishing many works since, even as her stories have travelled the world, Anna keeps returning home in her writing.
Motherhood, isolation and murder mystery
Inspired by the statistic that 90 per cent of new mothers experience loneliness, The End of the Ski Season follows a journalist and new mother investigating a cold case linked to a 1980s double murder.
Written as an audio thriller and narrated by a cast of eight – including Erik Thompson and Jay Laga’aia – Anna says that the book was inspired by motherhood, particularly the feelings of isolation and the profound changes that come during that time.
Caring for her young son, she found herself reflecting on the compromises women often make after having children and how these decisions can shape the course of their lives. From there, the character of Chrissy – a journalism lecturer struggling to re-enter the workforce after maternity leave – was born.
“The story is about a woman in her 30s who’s just had a baby. She was a journalist in Sydney and has moved to Canberra and started teaching journalism at ANU,” explains Anna.
“She’s feeling an identity crisis after becoming a mum and stepping away from a career that defined her.”
Learning about a chilling double-murder case in 1980 that took place in the Snowy Mountains, Chrissy becomes obsessed with the idea of writing a long-form piece to relaunch her career. As she goes around and around in circles trying to find out what happened, she uncovers a web of lies, animosity and intense friendships that have been buried under layers of snow and time.
Where memory meets mystery
That’s why Anna says Canberra is the perfect setting for The End of the Ski Season.
“I was really interested in this idea of circles. She’s living really circular days. She’s really obsessed with this case, and it’s going round and round in her head, and then the narrative itself goes in circles, as she’s trying to work through this mystery,” explains Anna.
“I see Canberra as a city of circles. You look at it from above and it’s just all these circles radiating out. I loved the idea that the literal planning of the city fits in with the structure and themes of the work.”
Touching on the universal yet deeply personal themes of motherhood, loneliness, and resilience, Anna says that she sought to understand and portray these issues in her story, weaving her own experiences and observations into the narrative.
Using her childhood home to dive into her own experiences raising her infant son, the strong sense of nostalgia and belonging she still feels for Canberra is reflected in the narrative’s mood and themes.
The End of the Ski Season takes listeners everywhere from Lake Burley Griffin to the Fyshwick Markets, and locals will appreciate the evolving identity of the city through flashbacks to the ‘80s and present day as Chrissy investigates.
Truth-telling through thriller
Continuing Anna’s dedication to telling stories about everyday women in extraordinary circumstances, The End of the Ski Season is much more than a murder mystery.
“I love writing books that appear quite commercial, but then, as you get into the guts of it, there’s a lot more and deeper themes going on. This one has a lot of anger in it about the compromises that women, but specifically mothers, make and how they can radiate through the rest of their lives,” says Anna.
“I think it’s a fun mystery in a lot of ways, but I also think that women will find a lot of resonance there and truth-telling about what women are living.”
Written specifically as an audio thriller so busy mothers – and people – can listen to it on the go, The End of the Ski Season will be available to download on 21 October.
