I loved this series. When I lived in Sydney some decades ago I had some friends in "low" places. One of them was a guy called Damus.
Now Damus was an intelligent guy and actually had an Arts/History University degree. He could hold up his end of a conversation on just about any topic. Well read, well informed a d for the most part, courtly mannered.
However he had one flaw, he liked hurting people, hence his occupation as an enforcer/debt collector/stand-over man.
Ray in the series reminded me a lot of Damus.