Buffett has been strongly influenced by literary figures such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his brother-inlaw, novelist Tom McGuane. In recent years he has enjoyed the works of Bruce Chatwin, thus Buffett's playful use of myth and magic in Where Is Joe Merchant? may reflect some of Chatwin's and Marquez's influence.

The action scenes were compared by Entertainment Weekly to Robert Ludlum's work. Further comparison with Ludlum can be made in Buffett's villains, the renegade demagogue, Colonel Cairo and the lost soul with the bizarre tattoos on his eyelids, Charlie Fabian, though neither are quite as malevolent as Ludlum's creations. The comedic elements also set Where Is Joe Merchant? apart from more intense action/suspense novels.