Supernatural   Life Expectancy Written By: Dean Koontz Published By: Bantam Books Reviewed by Ismael Manzano             Greetings and salutations everyone out there in the World Wide Web, I am here once again with a review of one of my favorite modern writers, Mr. Dean Koontz.  The book I’ve chosen this time is called Life Expectancy; I had wanted to read this book for quite a while, having spotted it on the bookshelf one day, next to one of the Odd Thomas books, and was immediately intrigued by the premise written on the back.  Unfortunately, at the time I was so swamped that I could not pick it up then and almost forgot about it until passed by it while looking for a copy of Brother Odd recently.             This speculative fiction novel follows the life of Jimmy Tock.  On the day of his birth, two very important events occurred, events that would shape his life for many years to come. The first was Jimmy’s grandfather, hospitalized by a stroke and failing in health, made a sudden and temporary recovery to make ten predictions of his yet-to-be-born grandchild.  Five predictions described Jimmy physically, height, weight, etc, but the last five foretold of five terrible days in Jimmy’s life—five days in which he should be on guard, in which his life will be in grave danger.  Rudy Tock, Jimmy’s father, witnessed and documented these predictions and, after Jimmy was born exactly when his father said he would and with exactly the same dimensions, he believed the dates were indeed destined to be terrible for his son.             The second important event involves a killer clown—yeah, I know what you’re thinking, because I’ve thought the same thing at first, but bear with me.  Konard Beezo, the clown in question and expectant father, went into a fit of rage when he discovered that his wife had died during childbirth, shooting nurses and doctors alike.  Rudy managed to save his son, but the recuperations of that night followed the Tock family for years to come, as you will learn shortly.              Anyway, the five days of Jimmy Tock’s life, as predicted by his grandfather were indeed terrible, some in more obvious ways than others.  Each, in some way, involved the Beezo family, each involved an attempt on their life or an attempt to irreparably alter the life of Jimmy and the family that he made for himself.  Although prepared, Jimmy and his family do not always manage to come out of each day unscathed, or without the loss of a life.  As each day comes and goes, Jimmy learns something new about himself, and the family that he comes from.  And hanging over his head, always, is the implied threat that the fifth of his terrible days will be the one he will not survive.              Overall, I really liked Life Expectancy.  Dean Koontz managed to once again surprise me with his ability to draw my attention into the heart of the character and hold it there.  He also managed to throw me for a loop quiet a few times.  This book delivers a lot of surprises, intrigue and intensity.   And despite the fact that most of the antagonists are or were circus folk—which I personally thought was a tightrope-walk between interesting and plain stupidity—the plot, characters, and dialogue runs along smoothly, and Mr. Koontz once again creates a compelling story.  As far as clowns go, the Beezos are very frightening and as far as sociopaths go, this family of circus folk is second to none on the sociopath scale of crazy.  What’s more, Mr. Koontz did a great job of portraying the madness of the antagonists—something which he has done so well over the years that I’m beginning t o think he might have a secret well of psychopaths stashed away upon which to draw upon for inspiration.  However he does it, Dean Koontz has created another great read and I would recommend this suspense-filled novel to anyone, whether you’re a fan of his or not; a fan of speculative fiction or not.  You’re sure to enjoy it.    For feedback, visit our message board or e-mail the author at imanzano@g-pop.net.