You Don't Know Me

by Aza Clave

Hannah Hauptmann Trilogy BOOK 1  "You Don't Know Me"

A debut Novel bestseller in Germany set in Berlin & Stockholm.

During the refugee crisis in 2015, Europe becomes a fractured and vulnerable continent. Right-wing voices are on the rise again. You Don't Know Me – book one of the Hannah Hauptmann Trilogy takes place in Germany and Sweden. Multiple plots combine whilst exploring the double lived lives of crooked police officers, spies, diplomats, outsiders and normal citizens whose paths continuously cross and intertwine.

In book one, Hannah, a 34-year-old mother, and journalist living in Berlin is by chance reunited with her very first love, Anders, the chief of the anti-terror unit in Stockholm. Along with the police, he is trying to track down a serial killer who is murdering female refugees in Sweden. The trail leads to a shady establishment that Anders and many characters in this world are familiar with.

While Hannah and Anders rekindle their relationship, someone else is bent on harming Anders - and within a week, Hannah is told that Anders has taken his own life. Unconvinced, Hannah begins to investigate and finds herself pushed into a world of lies and intrigue, spies and right-wing extremists who are all tied to this Swedish shady establishment. But by seeking the truth, she herself becomes a target.

An interweaved love story with a thriller, political controversy, and murder mystery style. A sneak peek into multiple underworlds that many of us would never know existed. A controversial book with political and sexual content. 18+ recommended.

©2018 Aza Clave

351 pages, ebook

First published February 25, 2018

About the author

Author of debut novel - You Don't Know Me.

I grew up in a secluded Transylvanian village in Germany & escaped to the US at age 16 hoping to surf the waves with Keanu Reeves. That never happened. Instead, I started my journey into adulthood doing all kind of weird things. I trained llamas, rode western horses, I Dj-ed, Vj-ed and in my spare time I became a Shaolin Kung Fu show-team performer. I lived in Russia, Africa & China, also with the Shaolin monks, and gave birth to my daughter in Berlin, where I currently live. My passion is film, reading, music, dance, art and writing. I'm hooked on crime stories in the vein of Henning Mankell, psychological thrillers and adore good classics. I'm guilty of having inserted a bunch of graphic sex scenes into my debut novel - I just felt like keeping it real to that particular pretty fucked up world with pretty fucked up characters.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I found this author. Her debut crime novel, You Don't Know Me, is nothing short of a triumph. I will go further and say it is the best book I've read in the last 12 months - and that includes novels by classic and mainstream authors. Large publishing houses and literary agents should be fighting each other to sign this author up.

Let me point out that Clave is writing superb prose in English although it is not her native language. Puts me in mind of Joseph Conrad in that respect, although the genres and styles couldn't be further apart. But to put her in a modern context, think Stieg Larsson meets Camilla Lackberg. This is, quite simply, a superbly crafted narrative.

The author in her blurb describes the novel as a genre bash set in Berlin and Stockholm. I've been to Berlin and the author brings the location to life. I've not been to Stockholm (although I have visited other Swedish cities and towns), but now I feel I have. Back to genre, I'd say this book fits into the crime category with interwoven elements of other genres - erotica, romance, political intriuge - but for me the crime is front and centre.

A warning to the lily-livered and squeamish among us, there are some graphic sex scenes that take your breath away, however nothing is gratuitous and all germane to some of the central characters.

I also love the way Clave can switch from scene to scene in short and mid-size chapters, unfolding multiple layers, and yet the reader is never confused or wondering what's going on.

Clave presents a gritty, thriller with a cast of characters who jump off the page and take a seat right beside you. Some of them - well, lots of them - you won't want hanging around for long, but you're going to feel their evil presence for some time. The positive characters are not perfect angels, either, and that's what strikes me the most about this novel. Clave paints humans as they really are, complete with foibles, weaknesses and base desires.

I highly recommend this book. Five big, fat, sparkly stars.

[Alicia Scarborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the start you are intertwined with the mystery as Hannah goes through the trials and tribulations of being reunited with her love only to lose him again to death... or is he really dead? That's the mystery. The suspects line up as you read each of their tales and how they too are involved in the overall story. I won't spoil it for you but this is a must read thriller mystery with a few adult situations thrown in (yes, that means sex and foul language but I don't mind it for I felt that it added that extra edge to the story).

[Chris Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aza Clave’s “You Don’t Know Me” is a gritty crime novel that caught my attention in the first chapter.

It’s a story that mixes international intrigue, spies, some current world issues, varied and realistic characters. The two main characters - Hannah Hauptmann and Anderson - met 18 years earlier, had a romance and parted only to meet again by chance. Multiple plots combine as we explore their lives, and Aza drips more sizzling complications to keep the reader absorbed.

Oh, and it has sex. Lots of sex. BDSM is included, but unlike erotic fiction, this is a backdrop - not the vehicle. Aza Clave handled the sex scenes well without ruining the story. Think of it as icing on a cake. The author gained my respect for this because she succeeded where many others fail.

Now, it’s no spoiler to say Hannah loses her lover after reuniting with him. He’s murdered and it’s declared a suicide. By this time, we have so many characters as suspects. Anders made many enemies in his questionable past. Who could it be?

Read the book. I predict you will enjoy it.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book in one day! It was really amazing. From chapter one you get pulled in this mindtwisting story in which all of the characters are connected in ways you wouldn't even imagine. Everyone has a secret and you just have to keep reading to find out what is happening. This one really kept me on the edge of my seat. Since this is the first book in a triology, at the end you get left with another great mystery. That's the only downside for me, now I have to wait to see what will happen to Hannah and how the mystery will be resolved.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller and doesn't mind some controversial and adult scenes.
Congrats to the author, this is her debut and it's a great one!

[H.R. Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers who loved “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” will love this book! With all the right amounts of intrigue, suspense and a touch of romance. “You Don’t Know Me” is the story of Hannah, a journalist in Berlin, whose marriage has just ended. A chance meeting with her soulmate from 18 years ago pushes Hannah into the world of international spies and right-wing extremists who are all tied to a fetish club. Clave does an excellent job of weaving together a multi-layered story that holds the reader’s attention from beginning to end.

[Logan Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot and Spicy

I’ll admit this was the first erotica book I’ve ever read. The author did an amazing job. This book is very well written. The characters and settings are well described and I was able to visualize every detail. I hope the author writes more. New fan here!

[E.M. Swift-Hook · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Powerful Message in Scandi Noir Clothing

“I guess some people are just really good at wearing different masks.”

Hannah has escaped an unhappy and toxic relationship and sets out on life as a single mother with her young daughter. An accident brings her back into contact with an old flame, Anders, who is now chief of the anti-terror unit in Stockholm and into lots of BDSM as is his wife Linda. Anders is trying to find a serial killer who has been preying on refugee women and leaving their hair bleached white.

This is a book that has very powerful themes and a lot of extremely graphic BDSM sex. It has the dark sense of foreboding that the Scandinavian Noir genre specialises in, but more of a political message at the heart of its grimness.

‘As long as more refugees are pouring in, more people will die.’

The best aspect of this book for me was the exploration of the issues around refugees and how their host community responds to them. It highlighted both the problems governments and their administrators have in making decisions and provisions for large numbers of refugees and the prejudice, resentment and fear that can occur in communities when this is badly handled. Bearing in mind massive human migration is a given ongoing, this is a message that needs to get out there, needs to be heard and needs to be addressed.

I also think the characters were very well detailed and believable. They are clearly unique and real people with their own issues, wishes, ambitions, strengths and weaknesses. Sadly, I couldn’t really like or relate well to any of them except a couple of the victims who we only meet for the chapter in which they die.

‘The house was bigger than she had expected and appeared to be in top shape. Opaque wooden walls two stories high, with a garage, and quite a lot of space.’

The real problem with this book is the writing. Maybe it is poorly translated but there were examples of inappropriate language usage on pretty much every page which jarred or broke my reader immersion. The quotation above is a good example. There were a lot of other things I struggled with in this book. I tried hard, but failed to gain any sense of reader empathy with any of the characters, so I was never able to enter into the story fully. This, I accept, is an issue other readers may not have. I also disliked the way the story darted through time, starting at a point then explaining how we got there when it added nothing and merely confused the reader’s awareness of what was ‘the present’. There was also an excessive amount of shifting of point of view. The reader would be in the head of one character and then suddenly leap to another with no warning which was very disconcerting.

I really didn’t like or see the need for the numerous gratuitous sex scenes, especially those set in the BDSM dungeon. These often featured characters that we never encounter elsewhere and have no significance in the plot whatsoever. So these were truly gratuitous. For me, these scenes were a major turn-off from the book as a whole, overshadowing it completely, but I know that for some readers who enjoy that kind of thing they will be a major attraction.

This is a book for those who enjoy Scandi noir but want something with more bite than the average for that genre.

[Pamela J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"'You Don't Know Me," the first offering from Aza Clave, harkens back to the feel and success of "Last Exit to Brooklyn." Both are harsh and even jarring, dealing unsparingly with the cold realities in life that most of us shield ourselves from, desperate to look away. While some may view Clave's prose as "adult" or "erotic," she develops a mystery thriller with complex characters that are gritty and forces us to consider the realities of the refugee crisis while we are, no doubt, happily and cozily ensconced in our easy chairs, sipping a glass of wine or tea.

Clave is uncompromising and unsparing in her drive to make these challenges real. But when the story seems at its most bleak, a ray of light shines through and one realizes the love story within this layered story.

The characters are diverse, complex and well-crafted. She does an excellent job developing characters with believable and wide-ranging traits, habits, speech patterns and appearances. It is nice to read a book in which the characters are not homogeneous. I found myself becoming fully engaged with these characters, loathing some and rooting on others.

I really hope Clave publishes the next book in the series SOON! Highly recommend!

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am totally amazed that this is a debut novel..the amount of detail and research is astounding. The writing is superb and a brilliant plot, I look forward to reading the next in the trilogy and no hesitation in giving it 5 stars ..just wonderful and many thanks to the author.

[Bruce Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An International Crime Mystery with Prevalent Erotic Elements

You Don’t Know Me is the debut novel by Aza Clave, the first book in the Hannah Hauptmann series, and a best seller in Germany. Set in Berlin and Stockholm, it provides a look into the dark and heartless world of those caught in the European Refugee Crisis, circa 2015. Anders Anderson leads the investigation into a series of grisly murders of immigrants to Sweden, as the hatred of the right wing of that country reaches the boiling point. Hannah, on the other hand, is trying to rebuild her life after leaving her husband and accidentally bumping into Anderson, her long-lost love.

I had some difficulty getting into the book, the first third introducing numerous characters and being slanted toward erotica; some of the scenes are rather graphic (potential reader be forewarned). From that point forward, sex shared the stage with the mystery more equally, but even at the end, the erotic element seemed overplayed. It wasn’t ‘spice’ for one or two characters or a means to clarify someone’s personality, but rather, it was nearly a universal trait among the book’s figures, both good and bad. As such, it did little to further the plot; at most, it helped explain the nature of some of the violence.

As for the mystery itself, it was generally well done. The action and suspense build through twists and revelations at a good pace. Tension would have been greater had the procedural elements been better done. At one point, for example, law enforcement personnel were ‘tossing’ a sim card box between them, yet later, they found one of the killer’s prints on it. No smudges? And despite the brutal nature of the crimes – torture, rape, mutilation involving multiple suspects – the police had no physical evidence beyond those prints for most of the book.

English is not the author’s native tongue and in places, it showed. For example, after finding a comfortable place to stay, Hannah “…glared at the striking maisonette.” Glared? Point of view was also an issue on occasion. Sometimes it changed in the middle of a paragraph; other times, it was not clear for long stretches of text. But overall, the story is well written, with the author’s descriptions of settings – the sights, sounds, and smells of them – being a strength.

Overall, You Don’t Know Me is an unflinching look at fictionalized atrocities occurring during the European Refugee Crisis of 2015. With those strong roots, the book would have been better served with less focus on sex, which did little to progress the story, and more on procedural realism.

[Joy RS · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very exciting first novel! This book is well, well worth reading. It’s tense, well-paced, with well-developed and very diverse characters, and the plot is completely unpredictable. It kept me on the edge of my seat right to the last word, with a close I didn’t see coming. There is some graphic adult content, but it’s all part of the plot so it didn’t bother me particularly. You Don’t Know Me is a great read and I so look forward to the next one.

[S Mad · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't know me is an interesting read. Quite astonishing for a debut novel. I particularly enjoyed the build up of interweaved stories and the different characters that have been explored in unconventional ways. The entire storyline relates to the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe and reflects the current Zeitgeist.

[Vivian Blac · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written, engaging story which will pull you in and keep hold until the end. The story contains a compelling cast of characters, with an intriguing plot. Aza Clave is a great storyteller, with a fantastic debut novel. I look forward to more from this author. I highly recommend this book.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshingly different debut novel, combining genres and pushing the boundaries. The author excels at handling the erotica, politics, romance and violence with aplomb and seamless integration within the storyline. There are not many authors that can juggle these specific multiple genres within one book, so I have given it five stars, just for that alone.

The background story builds up steadily, setting the scene and gradually weaving in the sub plots. During the early chapters of the book, where the characters are being introduced, the story flips between European locations and also introduces the hidden lives and secrets of many of the characters. You’ll be taken to dark, erotic and dangerous underworlds. Because it’s also a murder mystery novel, you’ll be wanting to know who’s who and immerse yourself in the complexities, so I recommend reading the first quarter of the book without too many breaks.

I particularly enjoyed the strength of the connection between the main key characters; in fiction books, anything can happen and they can leave you feeling that maybe, miracles CAN happen.

Aza Clave’s novel just got better and better, surprising me with twists and turns…and just when I thought we were nearing the end, yet more hidden layers and thrills.

**Please note: there are scenes of explicit sexual acts.

[Kimberly Diede · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Topics, Fast Paced and Thrilling Read

This book was full of crazy twists, turns and mystery. It exposed me to an underworld I never knew existed. Some of it was disturbing but I suspect it is a reflection of scary things happening out there in the world today.

I liked seeing Hannah's character develop as the story progressed. There are numerous other characters as well that are well developed and give the story depth and intrigue. Pay close attention so you can see how the various storylines weave together.

There is some very explicit sexual content and violence.

A different type of read for me but I found it hard to put down. The author did a great job with some extremely challenging topics.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book outside of my genre taste, but I did like it from a more writer perspective. The book itself was quite well written, and the characters felt genuine, as some are corrupt or not so honest, which was clearly shown by the author. As this was written by someone who the first language isn’t English, my hat is off for Ms Clave.
The warning ‘Not for the faint of heart’ is a warning that I agree with, not that I found anything offensive, just that while it is world building it wasn’t my fondest part.
Overall, I like the book, the twists and intrigue kept me invested. Please read the blurb to make sure this book is for you.

[Peel Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable read. Although the characters are pretty flawed, they are quite believable. Briskly paced. Kept the pages turning. Well written considering English is not Ms Clave's first language. Looking forward to hearing what happens next. Is Hannah pregnant and is Anders really dead?