The Doorbell Rang has its closest counterparts in the novella "Before I Die" (in Trouble in Triplicate, 1949) and the novel In the Best Families (1950). In both cases, Wolfe contends with formidable overlords of organized crime; in the second, he finally declares war on his Moriarty, Arnold Zeck. As in The Doorbell Rang, Wolfe defies an organization that even brave men say cannot be beaten. He refuses to be intimidated, and resorts to the most unorthodox measures of his career to emerge unscathed and victorious. The differences between the megalomaniacs of the underworld and those in Washington, as Stout portrays them, are negligible: He mistrusts any power not limited by law.