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At the start we see Anne emerging from a very secluded existence: "Therefore, Papa being immersed in the past, Mamma having died when I was a baby, it fell to me to undertake the practical side of living." And then her father dies and she can have adventures.
Fairly recently I read some of the Amelia Peabody series written by Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz). The first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank, describes Amelia as have had a very similar secluded existence because of her studious father. Although set in the 1880s, the first book was written in 1975, and I wondered if Peters might have been partly inspired by The Man in the Brown Suit.
Of course there are differences: Anne is still very young, and emerges from seclusion quite poor. Amelia is 32 and emerges with plenty of money to fund her adventures.
I may well be just a coincidence, but the similarity in their situation struck quite strongly me as I read the opening chapters.
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