Product Description
With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Dean Koontz returns with an emotional roller coaster of a tale filled with enough twists, turns, shocks, and surprises for ten ordinary novels. Here is the story of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy—a story that will challenge the way you look at good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.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 frist 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 twent-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 anomal 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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 270 reviews)

Life Expendency by Judith Klee (Pottstown, Pa)

5 Stars
October 11, 2009
This re-newed my positive opinion of Dean Koontz. I throughly enjoyed listening to the audio book. It is possible to laugh and drive at the same time. John Bedford Lloyd made this a more enjoyable experience with his reading skills. John Llyod was great at doing the voices of the different characters and I especially liked his voice of Jimmy's wife. The way Jimmy and she bantered back and forth was one of my favorite parts. The plot starts with Jimmy's Grandfather dying on the day Jimmy was born. Jimmy's Grandfather on his death bed makes the prediction of Jimmy's birth, weight, length, time and fused toes. The Grandfather goes on to predict five dates where terrible events will occur in Jimmy's life. "Terrible, Terrible Days" No clues as to what will occur only to beware of the dates that he gives with his dying breath. Jimmy's father after watching his father die and copying down the given dates, then proceeds to the father's waiitng room. Jimmy's father while anticipating the delivery of his son , then crosses the path of a homicidal clown. Jimmy's father had also been warned by his father to beware of the clown. The crossing of the paths of the Homicidal Clown and Jimmy's Father; and the birth of Jimmy, exactly as predicted, seals Jimmy's fate. These events lead to future events that fullfill Jimmy's Grandfather's dying predictions. Along the way to future events Jimmy's family, a family of bakers, is filled with love and humor. Jimmy will also meet his future wife and share that love and humor and will set out on a path of their own. Dean could possibly have cut down on some of the wordy descriptions, but a very enjoyable, adventerous,humourous book and I highly recommend it.

Different kind of book. Try it out! by A. Armstrong (Eagle, Mountain, UT United States)

5 Stars
October 03, 2009
I've read a lof of Dean Koontz. This was probably my favorite of his books. It's not a horrow story, but as always, he uses a lot of twisted humor. The premise is actually very ingenious, very original - not at all like a lot of the books that get churned out nowadays. Even if your not a Koontz fan or a fan of horrow stories, you should read this - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

My most favoritest fiction book. by R. Vest (North Carolina)

5 Stars
September 26, 2009
I've read this book five times. I love it. Unfortunately I gained 5pounds during the first reading and 3pounds during the second reading. It's as smoooth as silk you spawn of a witch's toilet!

Transformed boredom and indifference into active dislike of Koontz by Marion Delgado (Eugene OR)

1 Stars
September 16, 2009
If I am again in airport and a Koontz paperback is the nearest book to hand - or the only book in the whole airport - I'll occupy my time in some other fashion. I just noticed it in a box of books I'd shelved to sell and it reminded me, flipping through it, of how annoying I found it. The hack villains are bad enough but the boring, smug Tock family - I can't imagine giving a damn if they lived or died. They're the sort who live to write in to Pluggers about their moral superiority, decency, and true grit. Or send Bill O'Reilly money for a book on the War on Christmas. This novel reminds me of those movies where they don't pay the writers - there's action and scenery and you're invited to feel good about the little homilies and slogans throughout, but no characters (just utterly brain-dead cutsie qurikiness) outside the author, nothing a four-year-old with a couple of hand-puppets couldn't accomplish. I am glad I read it - I had had an impossible time making it through previous Koontz books, and I assumed he was just a Stephen King knockoff. Admittedly, he is a Stephen King knockoff, but I hadn't realized how small-minded and smug he was. Some people have a gift for churning out product that can sell, and I think he has that. Let it be enough.

More than I expected.... by A Rose by Any Other Name (You Are Here ---->)

4 Stars
September 15, 2009
I loved this book. I gave it four stars, but would like to give it four and a half. While the pages didn't 'turn by themselves,' as I have experienced with other Koontz books, I was no less enthralled to read every single line, every single word in this book. The story, at first, comes across as expected; I was predicting the end in the second chapter. I was, of course, wrong - delightfully wrong - in my predictions. Dean Koontz is one of my favorite writers, not because he's a supremely talented or wonderously literatured author, but because he has a talent to weave a story with mystery, intrigue, romance and humor as expertly as Dave Barry can make you laugh, or Stephen King can make you sweat. In fact, I'd call Dean Koontz the product of Barry and King, as if one could smoosh the two together and form a new person, a new story teller. The humor in this book had me laughing and chuckling out loud. The humor, intwined with mystery and that ever-present bit of horror, makes this an interesting and entertaining read. Koontz does not disappoint with Life Expectancy. The story follows the life of one Jimmy Tock, who, at his birth and the death of his grandfather, is predicted to have to endure five terrible days, spread out over the course of many years in his life; the first to occur during his twentieth year. We know he survives four of the five days because the story is told in Jimmy's voice; the tease throughout the book is whether or not he'll survive the fifth day. It all leads up to that moment, however the stories between his birth and that last, terrible day are entertaining on their own, and sprinkled with chocolate almond cheesecake, creme brulee, and many other delicacies. One has to wonder if Koontz explores underground dwellings, sewers, the underside of piers, the back alleys and side roads of America for inspiration. His attention to detail is as entertaining as the story he tells.

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