John Dalhousie, a division chief for the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and Constable Robert Norris's boss, is the "frame narrator"—a character whose opening and concluding comments frame the central story by putting its events in a larger, enclosing context. Dalhousie functions to explain to readers that Norris is a police officer investigating a mysterious case, to tell them that the mystery of Stillwater is true and embarrassing to the police, and to assure them that Norris is a conscientiously reliable policeman. Dalhousie also serves as the skeptical and level-headed observer whose observations seem honest and comforting. He is the wary watchman who represents our own skepticism and who provides a context of reason and stability in which people may seem to have control over their environment, in spite of the disquieting disorder of the story's plot.

Roberts Norris is the narrator of...