Life Expectancy

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke. What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson--five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twenty-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth. Rudy is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly--the unexplained anomaly of fused digits--on his left foot. Suddenly the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance. What terrifying events await Jimmy on these five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy's story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous--a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.

I read all of Koontz's work but I was a little disappointed lately with his recent works. I was rewarded for my loyalty with this book. It is Koontz at his best like his work used to always be. The story is interesting as are the characters and the plot twists are nonstop and the ending of the book was extremely surprising. Jimmy Tock is a great character. He is my favorite except for Snowman who I wish would show up in another book. Jimmy's wife is a character that I found annoying but you can't have everything. At least Koontz makes the women in his book strong not weak sniveling little cowards. I highly recommend this book. It is a must read for mystery fans. It is more mystery than horror but that was ok with me since it was just such a great story. I couldn't put this book down. I am glad Koontz is back to his old standards.

In the past fourteen years, I've read everything of Koontz's that I could get my hands on and, yet, he still managed to thrill me with Life Expectancy. It wasn't the plot, nor the diabolical twists and turns. You know, right away, when you sit down to read a Koontz book that he's going to take you on a fast, suspenseful ride. You know that the characters will be well-drawn and that you will be frightened out of your wits and that sometimes you will laugh until you cry. All of those expectations were met in this book. What I got online to tell you, fellow readers, is that instead of a suspense novel that you will read in a few hours and put away, you're getting a novel that will touch you in ways you'll never forget. And, what's more, Koontz accomplishes this by not being preachy at all. I adored the Tock family: Rudy and Maddy and Grandma Rowena, Weena; Jimmy (who's the hero), and his wife, Lorrie (who is one heck of a heroine). I disagree with the critic who said Koontz's humor was misplaced in this book. I loved their humor. As macabre as Grandma Weena's stories were, they were hilarious! These characters had a zest for living that was wonderful. No matter how horrible life sometimes got for them, they did not give up. Personally, that's the only way I know how to live. You don't give up in life, you just keep going and you WILL prevail! That's what I love the most about Koontz's books. His characters have human failings, but they possess indomitable spirits. You will laugh, and cry, and shout Hallelujah! when the bad guys get theirs. An all-around rousing tale that Grandma Weena, that teller of macabre tales, would be proud of. Some highpoints for me were: The prose--smooth as silk, concise, not a word wasted. The fact that the story was populated by a multicultural cast. Okay, I appreciate that in a popular novel. It's just more realistic to me to have people from all races in a story. Wait until you read the scenes in which Jimmy and Lorrie are in their SUV on the way to the hospital for her to give birth to their first child, when a maniac in a Hummer runs them off the road during a snowstorm. You'll feel like you're in the car with them! Kudos, Mr. Koontz.

At this point, it's hard to describe anything Koontz writes as completely original; he's written so many books that, any sort of criticism aside, you're bound to recognize certain plots and/or characters from previous books. That said, "Life Expectancy" differs, in some ways, even more from the norm than did Koontz's previous offering, "The Taking." Perhaps the most obvious is the fact that this book is *not* set in Southern California, unlike nearly every book Koontz has written in the past decade. Likewise, the narrator and protagonist does *not* physically resemble Koontz, and there is little preaching or moralizing. [I did think of Dr. Evil midway through the book, though; if you've seen the first Austin Powers movie, you'll understand why.] Jimmy Tock is a convincing narrator; while other reviewers have been put off by his tendency toward glib humor (it reminded me of some of the banter in "Cold Fire"), removing that humor would have made this book as bleak as "The Taking," which I really don't think Koontz wanted to do. [Personally, I would hope that, were I in Jimmy's place, I would be able to laugh on those "terrible days" as well.] You can read the basic plot summary above, so I won't regurgitate that; let me simply say that I was constantly surprised by where the book is going. In particular, I didn't expect the final part to turn out as it did, especially after having read "Odd Thomas," so I must give Koontz credit for managing to pull one over on me. This is another quick read; I read it cover to cover in just a few hours. I can certainly recommend this book to Koontz fans, and I'd suggest it even to people who aren't big fans of Koontz.

In Snow Hospital in Snow County, Colorado, dying Josef Tock makes ten predictions about his unborn grandson who is also in the hospital about to leave the womb. Of the forecasts, the most ominous is that Jimmy will face five terrible days in his future. The sandwich generation Tock is Rudy who paces between the maternity and death wards until Jimmy is born at the same moment his father dies. Rudy soon learns how accurate the predictions are as Josef stated the height and weight of his grandson and that the child will need surgery to correct Syndactyl or call him Flipper. On that same day at the same location, a circus clown goes on a killing rampage. Two decades later, Jimmy is in the library when seemingly the same clown from twenty years ago and two accomplices shoot the librarian and capture Jimmy and Lorrie Lynn Hicks. Explosives are placed in tunnels that link the library underground to the courthouse. Jimmy knows he will survive this ordeal because he believes terrible day two awaits him in the future. However, he ponders what could happen to those he cares about like Lorrie Lynn when a terrible day occurs and what will happen to him when terrible day five happens? LIFE EXPECTANCY is a terrific suspense driven tale when it concentrates on knowing a segment of your future, but unable to do anything to thwart it except perhaps avoiding those you cherish. When the story line switches into grave humor such as the dialogues between Lorrie Lynn and Jimmy, it loses some of the tingling chills. Jimmy is terrific as the first person narrator, but though fans of Dean Koontz will enjoy this tale, the jocularity takes away from a powerful premise. Harriet Klausner