Life Expectancy [Paperback]

Dean Koontz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005

In the dazzling new thriller from the master of dark suspense, the hand of fate reaches out to touch an ordinary man with greatness. So long as he is ready. So long as he is, above all, afraid. 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 20th year; the second in his 23rd year; the third in his 28th; the fourth in his 29th; the fifth in his 30th. 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 moment of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height, 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 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Of all bestselling authors, Koontz may be the most underestimated by the literary establishment. Book after book, year after year, this author climbs to the top of the charts. Why? His readers know: because he is a master storyteller and a daring writer, and because, in his novels, he gives readers bright hope in a dark world. His new book is an examplar of his extraordinary work. Suspense is difficult to sustain; suspense that's buoyed steadily by humor, even as it deals with the most desperate of circumstances, is nearly impossible—yet Koontz manages it here. As in last year's brilliant Odd Thomas, Koontz writes again in the first person, employing a cleaner, more instantly accessible line than in some of his other work (e.g., this year's The Taking). His narrator is Jimmy Tock, a pastry chef in a Colorado resort town. On the day he was born, Jimmy's dying grandfather predicted five future dates that would be terrible for Jimmy; he might have mentioned, but didn't, the birth day itself, which sees a mass slaying by a bitter, deranged circus clown in the hospital where Jimmy is born. The bulk of the narrative concerns the first terrible day, about 20 years later, when the vengeful son of that clown takes Jimmy and a lovely young woman, Lorrie Hicks, hostage in the local library, with an eye toward destroying the town; Jimmy and the woman live to marry, but will they and their family survive the four subsequent terrible days? Like most of Koontz's novels, this one pits good versus evil and carries a persuasive spiritual message, about the power of love and family and the miracle of existence. As such it deals with serious, perennial themes, yet with its steady drizzle of jokes and witty repartee, it does so with a lightness of touch that few other authors can match. Koontz is a true original and this novel, one of his most unusual yet, will leave readers aglow and be a major bestseller. If the literary establishment would only catch on to him, it might be an award-winner too.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics found Life Expectancy somewhat, well, unexpected. From the master of horror, suspense, and SF comes a novel about love, family, and good versus evil, all wrapped up in a warm, fuzzy package. Sure, Koontz’s newest novel contains variations of the horror elements that define his previous works (The Taking, The Face), but his characters are so endearing that it’s hard to see how anything bad could happen to them. In fact, despite his grandfather’s prediction, Tommy’s five bad days turn out to be both a curse and a blessing. Reviewers found Koontz a great storyteller, despite a few overwritten parts, false cliffhangers, and hackneyed humor. Kudos to Koontz for taking risks in this bizarre, clever story.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pb; First Edition edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007196954
• ISBN-13: 978-0007196951
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (313 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania where I graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University). When I was a senior in college, I won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and have been writing ever since. My first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where I was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. During my first day on the job, I discovered that the previous occupier of my position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and I was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. I wrote nights and weekends, which I continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After a year and a half in that position, my wife, Gerda, made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of my writing career. Gerda and I, along with our dog, Trixie, live in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 174 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Koontz can still surprise me after all these years!, December 16, 2004

By 

Janice Sims "a reader & a writer" (Central Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life Expectancy: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Under the sword of Damocles, January 22, 2005

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life Expectancy: A Novel (Hardcover)

On the stormy night that Jimmy Tock is born, not only does his dying grandfather correctly predict the facts of his birth, including the fact that he will be born with fused toes, but he also predicts that there will be five horrible days ahead in Jimmy's life.

Armed with the five dates, the adult Jimmy, now a baker by profession, must face those five days. As each date approaches, Jimmy feels the sword of Damocles dangling by an invisible thread over his head. What will each horrible day bring, and when during the day will the sword drop? Each chapter covers the time leading up to and through one of the prophesied days. Those days are horrible indeed. They are also interrelated and tied to a mysterious fact about Jimmy's birth that he has yet to discover.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I closed the cover of this book, but not because of the ending. I'm referring to the fact that Koontz has redeemed himself for his disappointing last book, "The Taking," with the suspenseful and surprise-filled "Life Expectancy." Koontz is the only horror writer I know who can seamlessly blend horror, humor, love, and hope. The only reason I did not give this book five stars is because I felt his trademark juxtaposition of horror and humor actually went a bit overboard at times. The story is full of twists and turns and tension-filled moments. It is populated with quirky characters including pastry chefs, a tornado chaser, a morbidly pessimistic Grandma, demented circus performers, and a pet portrait painter. Recommended as a riveting and satisfying read that both chills and radiates the warmth of a freshly baked loaf of bread.

Eileen Rieback

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twist a Minute, December 5, 2004

By 

Chandler McGrew (Bethel, ME United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Expectancy: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having read just about everything Dean Koontz has written over the past twenty years I find one thread that ties them all together. I know that having been confounded by plot twists and turns all through the novel I will see the pages thinning and the end rushing toward me still not knowing how the story is going to end. And with each passing page I will think 'no way he can end this in the space he's got left'. Then I'll think, 'yes, he can. He always does.' And he will. Life Expectancy was slightly different. I thought that he had tied everything together and then noticed that there were still several pages left. Must be an epilogue, I thought. Right. An epilogue from hell that only Koontz could have come up with. And I should have known that syndactily meant more to Dean than just fused fingers...

If you are a longstanding Koontz fan like myself you will see echoes here of Odd Thomas and, more likely, Tick Tock (which, if there IS a God he will rerelease in hardcover). If this is your first Dean Koontz novel, then Prepare to be Enchanted.