What is the author's style in Detective Story by Sidney Kingsley?

Kingsley's Detective Story is written in the style of realism. Realism characterizes literature that strives to portray real-life circumstances as accurately as possible. Kingsley prepared for the writing of Detective Story by spending many hours in a New York City police precinct station, in order to render his characters, their speech, and the nature of their professional work as accurately as possible.

Detective Story is a "social problem play" in the sense that Kingsley's aim in writing it was to explore a specific set of societal problems. Kingsley utilized his realistic portrayal of life in a police station in order to explore societal issues of democracy and justice. As he explained, "I saw that the measure of a free society can be taken right there in a police station, in the relation of police activity to constitutional law." Kingsley hoped that, with Detective Story, he "would stir people to feel the necessity for keeping public control over police power."