Halfway House

By: Ellery Queen

Narrated by: Fred Sullivan

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The victim had lived two lives, but a single knife thrust ended both of them. The trail of suspicion led into the guilt-edged world of the beautiful people - and climaxed in a vicious courtroom battle that ended with a shattering verdict. It seemed that for the first time Ellery had met his match - until the sleuth blended his usual impeccable logic with a most unusual fling.…

©1936 Ellery Queen (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Someone “pinc-nez” me, I think I’m having a nightm’

I’ve complained about this before. When you read a book for yourself and come across something / a term, let’s say, which you don’t know, it is relatively common, amongst those who value knowledge and despise ignorance, to rectify the lapse and look the thing up.
Now, when you’re reading a book for an audience.... it is effectively REQUIRED that you do so. After all it’s your responsibility to pronounce the word or phrase with the utmost accuracy.

The blatant failure to do so... and lack of knowledge or thoroughness to catch aforementioned during final editing... can go very far into ruining a “performance” in entirety. In fact I could barely call such a charade a “performance” at all. It’s just some dude carelessly “reading” a book. NOT “performing” it, by any stretch of the imagination.

Brilliant!

Good performer! He only mispronounced a few words! Sgt VEE LEE, if you please! Mispronounced words make me crazy! However, reading a book with voices must be difficult, so forgivable! Love the Ellery Queen books! Thank you!

another great Ellery Queen book

once again, the Audio company that makes the Ellery Queen bucks has changed the narrator... However, this narrator does a very good job I'm differentiating between the characters, not as good as the first narrator in the series, but still pretty good and worth listening to

loved it

Kept met guessing until the end as always. Was ana amazing book. get it now

A little bit convoluted but gun never the ledd

Only the last chapter dragged because the authors dragged the murderer reveal .Other than that it was a nice listen.

Really had a good time with it

Hopefully more Ellery Queen will be read by Fred Sullivan!!! He fits the mood perfectly

Worth a Listen

I liked this story. Unfortunately, it still suffers from being over done. Ellery doesn’t know when to quit. In spite of this it is still entertaining. I am happy he saw fit explain to the Judge how he arrived at his conclusion. For me from the beginning it could have been only one person and fortunately for me I was correct. The trial should have produced a different verdict as stated so by the Judge. For me that offered the short cut to the true killer. An opportunity for Ellery to solve the crime with proof. The real killer would have been in panic mode because his/her careful plan was blown away. Of course I could be wrong, I don’t think so but it is possible. I hope you read/listen and enjoy.

phenomenal detective skills demonstrated

My first entertainment from the hands of Mr Queen! An awesome reading by Fred Sullivan

Look...

I won't pretend I'm the best at following the logic of Mr Queen, but i have to call out at least one of these terrible points he is using as definite fact...
women would never smoke pipes, women carry lipstick and would naturally think to write with it (a man wouldn't think of it). I'm irritated. The more I listen to these stories the less impressed I am by the ultimate answer. Its just speculation and probability delivered as pompously as possible.

Typical EQ

Set in 1935 with sub theme of class distinctions, it has all the elements you expect from this genre. I took off one star because Ellery never mentioned the presence or absence of one of the clues I expected. It might be a partial spoiler to say more.

So stop reading if you do not want an enigmatic or implied extra clue. For those who are trying to figure this out and want just a little more, partial spoiler follows. There was a clue at the scene that just about everyone would have noticed almost immediately. It was odd in retrospect that Ellery did not notice or ever ask about but it would have greatly shortened the book if he had. If you know what I’m talking about then you know what I’m talking about.