The Moonstone the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe," and Dorothy L. Sayers praised it as "probably the very finest detective story ever written." In "The Victorian Age in Literature," G. K. Chesterton calls it "probably the best detective tale in the world." It was published in 1868, later than Poe's short story mysteries "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) (which introduced the famous locked-room paradigm), "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842), and "The Purloined Letter" (1845). The plot also shows some parallels with "The Hermitage" (1839), an earlier murder mystery
The Man in the Morgue orderly at the makeshift morgue who practices voodoo, they head to the morgue. Meanwhile, back at the lab, Angela Montenegro delivers the X-rays of John Doe 361 to Zack Addy so he can make an analysis of them. He calls Brennan and tells her that John Doe 361, who she does not recall, was 40 years old, of mixed race and was murdered. At the morgue, Sam informs Brennan that they had spoken on Tuesday night about the object lodged in 361's mouth, which was voodoo in origin. Sam explains that voodoo is all about balance and that the hurricane,