Although The Key to Rebecca is based upon an actual incident during World War II, an account of which can be found in Anthony Cave Brown's Bodyguard of Lies, it is fundamentally an example of the novel of espionage and intrigue. Its plot and atmosphere have more in common with the works of Ian Fleming and Frederick Forsyth than with objective accounts of history. Enough factual details are contained in Follett's story to place it in the tradition of the historical novel, but it is the sense of the exotic and the clandestine which gives the book its fascination.

A less substantial but plausible connection suggests itself between The Key to Rebecca and various works centering on the decline of the British Empire. The writings of E. M. Forster, Joyce Cary, and George Orwell (see separate entries) may at least be faintly echoed in Follett's novel...