There are obvious parallels between At Heaven's Gage and Warren's later novel The Cave (1959), particularly in the characters of Sarrett and Ike Sumpter. Both are ambitious opportunists, thwarted by the rejection of a sweetheart, and both make use of others in their climb to power.

Sarrett's wounded egotism takes revenge by murdering Sue; Ike Sumpter might have saved Jasper Herrick and later—to exploit the sensationalism of the event—Sumpter cruelly fabricates messages from the dead Jasper that suggest that Jasper still lives in his retreat in the cave.

Sue also bears some resemblance to the seduced Anne Stanton in All the King's Men, and there are parallels between Sue and the victimized Cassie Spottswood in Meet Me in the Green Glen (1971). Sue's struggle to define her relationship to her father, though not very well articulated, is a precursor of Amantha Starr's experience in...