(See Ellery Queen.) The character of Ellery Queen was probably suggested by the novels featuring detective Philo Vance by S.S. Van Dine, which were very popular at the time. This novel was the fifth in a long series of novels featuring Ellery Queen, the first nine containing a nationality in the title. It contains some similarity to the subsequent "The Three Coffins" by John Dickson Carr (1935) in that both are concerned with three brothers from the same general area of the world who are involved in a murder plot based on long-ago events.