The Unknown Ajax is a 1959 historical romance novel by Georgette Heyer.
Hugo Darracott's family expect him to be an ignorant country bumpkin. Hugo obliges them by adopting a Yorkshire accent and pretending to be stupid. This pretence allows him to discover his family's involvement in smuggling.
Contains examples of:
- Crusty Caretaker: Spurstow (a handy way of making people reluctant to visit him).
- The Dandy: Claud.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Upon finding out that Lord Darracott intends for him to marry Anthea, Hugo invents a fiancée back in Yorkshire. (Anthea has already said that she doesn't want to marry him, but she also feels the need to discourage him from proposing by being very cold. He invents "Amelia Melkinthorpe" in the hopes she'll lay off if she doesn't think she has to scare him away.)
- Indy Ploy: Richmond is shot by Ottershaw's men and leaves a trail of blood leading straight to his home. Hugo just has a few minutes to come up with a brilliant plan before the customs officers barges in and arrests his cousin (and possibly the whole family) for smuggling... and somehow gets the whole family and some servants to put on a show to convince the officers they shot the wrong cousin. It works.
- Inspector Javert: Lieutenant Ottershaw with his near-fanatical pursuit of smugglers.
- Kissing Cousins: Anthea and Hugo.
- Mysterious Past: Hugo, eventually revealed.
- My Valet-Fu is Stronger Than Yours: Crimplesham and Polyphant (Vincent and Claud's valets, respectively) spend a great deal of time trying to one-up each other.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Hugo pretends to be much less educated and socially adept than he actually is, half because he thinks it's hilarious how his relatives react, half because his size makes responding to insults tricky (since almost everyone is smaller than him, he'd look like the aggressor no matter what), so it's easier to pretend he doesn't realize he's been insulted.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Aunt Aurelia is the only character to notice that Hugo's Oop North accent goes away, rather than appears, when he's not paying attention. (He does come by the broad Yorkshire accent honestly, but after his education he has to concentrate to put it on.)
- Oop North: Hugo milks this for all he's worth, pretending to be a Fish out of Water in genteel surroundings, and very much enjoys the reactions of his relatives—until Anthea corners him and forces him to admit he was actually educated at Harrow.
- The Patriarch: Lord Darracott.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The truth behind the supposedly-haunted Dower House.
- Secret Underground Passage
- Unexpected Successor: Hugo becomes the heir after Lord Darracott's eldest son and grandson are drowned in a boating accident.
