Michael Schäfer is a German suspense novelist and former industrial safety auditor from Duisburg. After studying materials science at RWTH Aachen and working a decade across steel mills in the Ruhr, he turned to fiction to explore the fault lines between technology and human motive. His previous thrillers, including Cold Forged Lies (2018), Blackout at Kilometer 12 (2020), and The Pyromancer's Ledger (2022), earned shortlist nods for the Friedrich-Glauser-Preis and a residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude.
Michael Schäfer lives in Leipzig with his partner and a rescue dog, and consults on industrial risk communication for NGOs and municipal responders. Between novels, Michael Schäfer mentors emerging writers at the Literaturhaus Leipzig and is a frequent guest at European crime festivals, where he speaks about engineering detail in narrative suspense.
