BOOK: Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

Pastry chef Rudy Tock is at the hospital tending to a pregnant wife who is about to give birth and his father who has suffered a stroke. The grandfather-to-be dies at the same point as the son is born, but before he goes he makes Rudy take note of five days in the future. These dates are when something very bad is going to happen to the child...


Like 24’s Jack Bauer, Jimmy Tock is about to have some very bad days. Unlike Kiefer Sutherland’s character, Tock has an edge in that he knows exactly when they’re going to happen. The only supernatural element in this novel is the prediction of the dates and that is all played out at the beginning of the book. What follows is a more everyday story showing the way Tock deals with that knowledge as a realistic part of his life.

Caught up in these predictions is Konrad Beezo, a circus clown expecting the arrival of his own son on that same fateful night. When things go awry he becomes almost as scary as Pennywise from Stephen King’s It. Beezo engenders fear in Jimmy’s family not because of any special powers but down to the dangerous nature of his insanity and paranoia. The two families lead parallel but very different lives in a neat thread running through the book – one a vision of the American Dream so pure it would be in black and white footage if it was on film and the other a destructive, abusive force passed down from a bitter father to son.

The only element that jars is the perfect dialogue which flows through many of the more tense scenes. The large number of quips would be difficult to come up with in the course of a normal conversation, let alone when you’re facing a dangerous assailant or imminent death. Where the book makes up for this is with the realistic way the family deals with its future knowledge. Just because they can’t change what is going to happen doesn’t mean they can’t prepare for it.

While this book lacks the usual scares you’d find in a Koontz horror, it makes up for it with the emotional tie you feel for the Tock clan. The study of insanity presented by Beezo and his son is believable and will make you glad you didn’t run away to join the circus.

Overall, a tale of family, fate and murderous clowns that is both endearing and original.

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