Duarte Cabral de Meneses
Duarte Cabral de Meneses makes a living as decoration. He is hired so that a party or a spa hotel looks more distinguished: a very tall man with two surnames — one inherited from his father, who sold fish in Setúbal, and one he gave himself — who chats about trifles with everyone.
That is exactly why people tell him things. Duarte knows that people guard themselves when they give a statement, but not when they make conversation, and that what is said in passing is where nobody lies.
Published cases, in the suggested order
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Case 1
What Is Said Without Fear
A photographer writes to Duarte Cabral de Meneses to tell him something, then asks him to wait until the next day. That morning he is found dead in a cubicle at the spa, in the bath his own ticket called for. Duarte stays on for the eight days he… has been paid in advance, talking nonsense with twelve guests, because nobody lies in the trimmings.
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Case 2
Nobody Is Wrong in Formation
On the night of the fair ball, seven pieces of silver vanish from a case locked with two keys, and by the next day the sergeant has fourteen statements that contradict one another without anybody lying. Duarte Cabral de Meneses was hired only to be… seen in the ballroom. He stays because in a whole village that has the time wrong there is one thing that is never wrong: the mail train.
How to read his cases
Each case is solved on its own, so the order is only a suggestion: the order of publication. What they share is the method — listen a lot, ask little — and a character who enjoys being underestimated.
No spoilers
This page gives away nothing the synopses do not. Whatever Duarte finds out, he finds out inside each story.