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’s 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, “When the children are gone and our debts are paid, I will leave you,” 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, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” This is what Oliver Rook must do.
Ashley’s first full-length novel, The Right Kind of Crazy, was published in 2018.
She has also authored a series of six children’s books set in the Comox Estuary, as well as a children’s Christmas book—Must Be Christmas—and 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.