Dean Koontz falls short with ‘Life Expectancy’

Dean Koontz is a prolific guy.

Give him a sharp pencil and a sheet of paper, and in a few days he’d probably hand back a new novel, scribbled in very tiny letters. “Compulsive” may be the word to describe his output, which is two novels a year or more.

Some of his books, such as “The Face,” are deep, wonderful stories that somehow combine creepy scares with real charm and an optimistic faith in humanity. Others don’t quite hit the mark.

Such a near miss is “Life Expectancy,” which is eerie but also overwritten and obvious. It’s like a half-hour “Twilight Zone” script stretched to two-hour feature length – too little butter smeared over too much toast, to paraphrase Bilbo Baggins.

Still, it’s moderately involving and ultimately charming. After all, it’s Koontz.

But we can’t help but think that if he had taken a little more time in its writing it would be meatier, would be a better book.

“Life Expectancy” is the story of Jimmy Tock, who was born at the same minute his grandfather, Josef Tock, died. But with his last breaths, grandfather Tock made 10 predictions – among them five dates in Jimmy’s life that would be horrible.

Jimmy’s first day is pretty rough, actually, because right after Josef dies, a sociopathic circus clown, Konrad Beezo, goes on a rampage when his wife dies giving birth to his son and shoots and kills the attending doctor and a nurse.

Beezo runs off with his newborn baby and escapes after telling Jimmy Tock’s father: “I’ll never forget you, Rudy Tock. Never.”

Little Jimmy has a wonderful, happy life growing up with his baker parents, learning the family trade and enjoying their small-town life.

When the first of the predicted terrible days happens, it is, indeed, a bad day. People are killed and injured, and a reconnection with the sociopathic Beezo family occurs. But Jimmy also meets the woman who turns out to be the love of his life.

The book takes us through all five of the predicted dire days – to the last, April 16, 2005 – and indeed, each day is terrible. The entire Tock family takes precautions each time, including carrying weapons and barricading themselves, but the bad things happen anyway.

But if you pay attention, good things happen, too. Such is life.

We like Jimmy Tock and his family, so it’s fun to spend a little time with him. And we tend to like Koontz and his frequent dollops of life wisdom that are scattered throughout.

Still, there’s not much meat on the bones of this little novel.