Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59763 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Life Expectancy confirms that one of the pleasures of reading Dean Koontz is that he is never especially likely to do the same thing twice in a row. Here he gives us a suspense novel with a supernatural element--Jimmy's dying grandfather prophesies at his birth that he will have five really bad days in his twenties and we watch these with real concern that he may not survive them. Even on the day of Jimmy's birth things go badly--a mad clown loses his wife in childbirth and massacres hospital staff; a bizarre feud between clowns and aerialists is a significant part of what follows. One of the strengths of Koontz's writing is that he works out in finely-blocked detail precisely how his average characters get themselves out of desperate situations by ingenuity and pluck, and without suddenly becoming super-powerful; even at his most wildly inventive, he remembers to be plausible. And this is one of his best books for a while simply because he has fewer axes to grind--this is pure story-telling of the smoothest kind. --Roz Kaveney.

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Life Expectancy
I fail to understand how anyone can possibly have anything bad to say about this book.
It grabs your attention from the first page and leavs an improssion on you long after you finish.
Koontz has written many incredible Books; Lightning, Watchers and Intensity to name a few, and this novel stands in their cohort of excellence.
Some things Koontz has written recently are blend and mediocre, surviving primarily by on the reputation attached to his name. This however, is a shining beacon of hope for his creative tallents, reinforcing my belief that he can still reach the hights he has done in his past.
I know that whenever a new Koontz novel is released I will think,...Maby, just maby it will be as good as Life Expectancy.

Life Expectancy Lives On
The basic idea of the birth of a baby coinciding with the death of its grandfather, at virtually the same time, and in the same hospital, was enough to raise my curiosity.
When said grandfather correctly predicts the size and weight of the forthcoming baby, interest increases.
And when grandpa then predicts five bad dates in the baby's lifetime, I simply began this book with great gusto.

Such ludicrous happenings, so weird etc, drew my attention, no question.

I wasn't disappointed - I thoroughly enjoyed this ride - and the predicted dates were always hanging there throughout Jimmy Tock's life, and add to that some crazy clowns and high-wire personnel, and you've pretty much got the idea.

Add to that some belly-chuckle humour with extremely witty dialogue - come on - what more do you want?

Loved every minute of it.

Good book from a great writer
I finished reading this book just a few days ago, and let me say that this is a good suspense novel.
What can one do to prepare oneself for 5 days of terror in their lifetime, when you don't no what kind of terror your going to be confronted.
Minutes before the birth of Jimmy Tock, his grandfather makes 10 predictions about his grandson, but more importantly... that Jimmy is going to have 5 terrible days in his lifetime.
What is going to happen to Jimmy in those 5 days, that will be so terrible?
Jimmy knows when those days will be, but is grandfather didn't give any clue to what horrors await Jimmy, for he dies de very moment is grandson is born.
This is the main thread of the story, 5 terrible days await Jimmy Tock and we accompanie Jimmy Tock in those 5 days... Will he live past the 5th terrible day?

That is a question one can answer only by reading the book.

I loved this book due it's pacing, it's suspense... You are taken on a roller coaster of emotions.

If you're a fan of suspense novels, and if you already know the work of Dean Koontz. Buy it, you won't be desappointed.
If you don't know Deans Koontz's work... well this is a pretty good place to stat.