What is the author's style in The Alienist by Caleb Carr?

The novel is written in the first-person point of view. The narrator, John Schuyler Moore, is a reporter who is friends with both Dr. Lazlo Kreizler and Theodore Roosevelt, a fact that pulls Moore into the middle of Kreizler's investigation into a serial killer. The novel begins with Moore reminiscing on his good friend Theodore Roosevelt who has recently passed away. This nostalgia causes Moore to recall an investigation the three friends embarked on together, the story of the boy-prostitutes and the man who was murdering them.

The point of view of this novel works well with the plot. Due to the fact that the novel is set in the last decade of the nineteenth century, the reader almost expects the narrator to be slightly removed from the action being described in the novel. This is partially true of Moore. Moore does not appear to have a functioning role in the investigation at first. Moore is almost an afterthought, along simply to assist rather than to do any active investigating. However, Moore's function becomes clear at the end of the novel when he takes charge of the investigation and comes up with the answer as to the killer's profession before anyone else. Therefore Moore spends a great deal of time reporting on the events taking place in the novel rather than taking part in them. This fits with the setting of the novel and gives the novel a more realistic feel.