The Papers of Tony Veitch is a crime novel by William McIlvanney.

[1] This series of books is recognised as the foundation of the Tartan Noir genre.

[2] Jack Laidlaw visits the deathbed of an alcoholic vagrant, Eck Adamson, who provides a cryptic last message which helps solve the murder of a gangland thug and the disappearance of a student.

He is an informer for Jack Laidlaw, who says "I know the streets, but Eck here has a doctorate and any number of diplomas."

He is described as "anything between thirty and sixty and probably had no more than a decade left in him without a radical change of lifestyle," as he knocks back two large rums with a pint of Guinness in between.