HALFWAY HOUSE, where a strange man finds final rest on his tortured journey through life . . . HALFWAY HOUSE, where, under the grim shadow of a sensational murder, opposites meet and clash -- common peddler and financier, young housewife and cold society woman, struggling lawyer and millionaire debutante... HALFWAY HOUSE, where Ellery Queen, crime consultant to the world-at-large, returns to his old love of pure and pungent deduction in what is unquestionably his most fascinating narrative of real people and subtle violence.