Comox author Marlet Ashley has published her second novel, and will be holding a book launch at the Courtenay & District Museum.

The Liberation of Oliver Rook, set in Vancouver and Toronto, is the story of a man whose life is hellish after he marries Mona, a woman who makes herself and her family miserable.

Nothing can stop her or help Oliver and their two children, Gavin and Gwendolyn. Mona鈥檚 cruelty is relentless, and just when you think she has done her worst, she reaches a new level of malice.

The courts, police, child welfare authorities, and mental-health systems fail Oliver in his attempts to protect his children, himself, and even Mona.

Oliver tells his wife, 鈥淲hen the children are gone and our debts are paid, I will leave you,鈥� which seems to him the worst thing he can say to someone with her mental instability. But he is wrong. He discovers that he is capable of far worse. As Winston Churchill said, 鈥淚f you are going through hell, keep going.鈥� This is what Oliver Rook must do.

Ashley鈥檚 first full-length novel, The Right Kind of Crazy, was published in 2018.

She has also authored a series of six children鈥檚 books set in the Comox Estuary, as well as a children鈥檚 Christmas book鈥�Must Be Christmas鈥攁苍诲 Robin and Ruthie Ride the Bus.

In 2018 and 2019 Marlet, with illustrator Kate Brown, published two travelogue/picture books: Crumblies do Skye and Crumblies do Paris, based upon their travels in Europe.

The book launch for The Liberation of Oliver Rook will take place on Feb. 24, 3-5 p.m. at the Courtenay Museum, 207 4th Street, Courtenay.