Unemployment Benefits
He Says Murder He Says
For Alan Fletch, one of the benefits of unemployment is to have the apartment he shares with his wife all to himself so he can sit around and think. And what does he think of? Why murder, of course. He wonders if it would be possible to kill somebody in broad daylight and get away with it. He even goes as far to pick a spot, plan an escape route, and buy a Saturday night special. Comes the fateful day, and does he actually shoot someone or undergo a schizophrenic episode and simply fantasize it? He doesn’t know, and it will be up to you to decide. Is Unemployment Benefits a psychological study of a psychopath or simply a story of a highly imaginative individual with too much time on his hands?
Idle hands are the devil's tool
“Feeling down on his luck, depressed and angry about being let go from his job, Walter Milton does not have enough to do to keep him busy. He just has to make sure that he is home in time to start dinner for his working wife. Too depressed to job hunt, he spends his days wandering around fantasizing about killing people. Taking things one step further, he illegally buys a gun. This greatly increases the likelihood that he could actually live out one of his murderous dreams. As his fantasies and reality collide, Walter believes that he has done something horrible.
“Feeling both repentant and fearful of being caught and becoming someone's sex toy in prison, Walter starts to snap out of his fantasy world and begins to make sincere efforts to find work. Even as he gets his life back in order, his fantasy world still has a tendency to creep back into his thoughts. Will he actually do it, or won't he? That is the question.
“Having experienced episodes of unemployment myself, I can understand how Walter could feel too depressed to go looking for work. Futile was the word that came to mind when I read this story. Especially since I suspected that his daydreaming might have played a role in being fired. Even if Walter didn't see it this way, I did. So instead of doing something to better himself, he dreams up ways to kill people. Not very productive, however, since this is a fictional story, I found it to be highly entertaining.
“The message here is about the importance of keeping yourself too busy to have time to dream up ways of killing people. "Unemployment Benefits" is another fun read from Bob Frey.”
—Paige Lovitt, Reader Views, five stars Amazon review
Interesting plot
“I bought this due to the subject matter, and I wanted to see how the author was going to flesh out the story. Overall, it was an interesting storyline. The product description is pretty much spot on. I don't want to mention anything that might be considered a spoiler, so I'm not going to describe any details. . . .I did like the story and hope to see more from the author.”
—Horror movie buff, three stars Amazon customer review
