The Doorbell Rang has distant ancestors in the classic detective novel and in whistle-blowing fiction. The lone detective against the corrupt official force is a staple of crime writing; the rebellion against overweening government is standard fare. By this point in his career, however, Stout was following precedents he had set himself. He may have considered The Maltese Falcon "the best detective story...written in this century," as Baring-Gould claimed, but Stout was fiercely independent in all matters, and by 1965 was writing like no one but Rex Stout.