title: Life Expectancy
author:  Dean Koontz 
description: 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.
zlib_text: Life Expectancy
  Koontz Novels [80]
  Dean Koontz
  Bantam (2011)
  Tags: Psychological, Suspense, Fiction 
  Psychologicalttt Suspensettt Fictionttt
  From Wikipedia
  Life Expectancy is a novel by suspense/horror writer Dean R. Koontz. The plot centers on five
  pivotal moments in the life of a self-proclaimed "lummox" named James "Jimmy" Tock. Read more -
  Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on Amazon
        In the article: Plot summary
  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