Setting a New Course

"David was contemplating the wreck of his home life and his career. He realised with sickening clarity exactly how much this meant. He was going to lose everything he had taken for granted for the last few years - friends and acquaintances, his parents and siblings, the routine of life at the depot, the house he and Mona had shared for the last five years, his marriage and his kids."

After being best friends from the age of nine, David and Alan had not seen each other for six years after Alan had left their home town in Yorkshire for a life in London. Then, one February day, they met up by accident when Alan got on the bus that David was driving. Having reconnected immediately, the true depth of their feelings became clear despite the fact that David was now married with two kids. After David started a new job driving an express service to London, the two twenty-five year olds began an affair - the course of which was the subject of the first book in this series, Veering off Course.

Setting a New Course opens with the aftermath of David facing a major crisis on one cataclysmic August night. It's a difficult time as he tries to come to terms with a new life in London with Alan, his feelings of guilt about his marriage and his fears for the future of his two sons, whom he misses terribly.

David is brought almost to his knees when the problems he is facing are compounded by the actions of a vengeful wife. Is his relationship with Alan strong enough to withstand the strain Of these events? Can he reach an agreement with his wife about the future of the kids? And is his father willing to heal the breach that has developed between them?

At a moment of crisis, intervention from an unexpected source helps to reduce the emotional temperature. Can calm reflection lead to a new course being set for Alan and David?

Setting a New Course is the second of a series of four novels 'The Navigation Quartet'.

Chris Cheek was born and brought up in South London. He has strong family ties with northern England and is a graduate of Lancaster University. He and his husband, Michael, have been together for over forty years and live on the Sussex Coast after 25 years in the in the Yorkshire Dales. This is Chris's fifth novel. He writes a regular blog which can be found at www.chrischeek.me