I read the book before watching the TV dramatisation and, sorry, I found it boring. If he was disabled in service he should have an army pension and there was no reason for him to be broke. In the TV series he pees into a coffee cup but for a man who drinks as much beer as Strike he would need an old fashioned chamber pot. The man who hired him saw him as a a drunk who would never get to the truth. Was it over-hyped?