Both "Death and the Compass" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" are murder mysteries that pit the ingenuity of a detective against mysterious and seemingly inexplicable killings.

Borges consciously bases his intelligent and analytic detective Lonrot on Dupin from "Rue Morgue," stating at the end of the first paragraph,

Lonnrot thought of himself as a pure thinker, an Auguste Dupin.

Both Dupin and Lonrot work with a police commissioner whom they are able to outthink due to their supremely analytical minds. Both are able to get into the minds of other people, which helps them reconstruct what has occurred.

However, the two differ in that Lonrot also had

something of the adventurer in him, and even of the gamester.

This means that Lonrot is willing to take risks for the thrill of risk-taking. Because of this, the two stories veer in different directions.

In "Rue Morgue," Dupin is able to use his vast intelligence to solve the crime in a straightforward way. He is victorious in resolving the case, which many critics have referred to as the first "locked room" mystery. Lonrot, on the other hand, falls into the carefully laid trap of his opponent, Scharlach, and ends the story being shot and killed.

However, for Lonrot, the journey or quest matters more than the end result, whereas for Dupin, solving the crime is all-important. Borges's story also ends on a mysterious or supernatural note, with Lonrot instructing Scharlach on how to construct the puzzle the next time they meet up and Scharlach saying,

"The next time I kill you," said Scharlach, "I promise you the labyrinth made of the single straight line which is invisible and everlasting."

This steps us into the land of magic realism, where the suggestion is that Lonrot and Scharlach have been at this game for a long time and that it transcends death. Poe's story, in contrast, stays firmly in the factual realm.