Michael "Mike" Omer (born 20 June 1979) is an author of crime, thriller, horror and fantasy who lives in Cork, Ireland. Born in Israel, his books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have sold over 2.5 million copies. He is a New York Times bestseller, a Washington Post bestseller, and authored the second most-read Kindle book of 2018. Omer has received the LiveLib Readers' Choice Award for Detective Fiction, the Russian Detective Prize, and the Thomas & Mercer Silver Raven Award.
Omer was born in Jerusalem in 1979. Both parents are psychologists, and one brother is the artist Noam Omer. At age six the family relocated to Boston for a year for his father's post-doctorate, where Omer acquired fluent English. From a young age he was a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy.
At 16, inspired by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, Omer wrote his first novel, The Geography of the End of the World, published by Israeli publisher Opus in 1995; he was the imprintâÂÂs youngest author.
His second novel, The Duck Attack (1999), was nominated for the Gefen Award. In the late 2000s he wrote social satire and launched the (now defunct) platform Loof Columns.
In 2011 Omer co-created the RPG Misfortune with Shahar Kober and Ziv Botzer, writing the main plot and worldbuilding over two years; Gamasutra praised its multi-thread storytelling.
Omer next wrote an interactive YA project, Nedudey Shena (Insomnia), with supplemental short videos, in a collaboration between Kinneret Zmora-Bitan and Keter Publishing House. A companion website hosted the protagonistâÂÂs vlog, noted by Haaretz. The English edition, Sleepless, appeared in 2015. Sequels included Moth to a Flame and The Buzzing.
After six fantasy books, Omer shifted to contemporary realism/crime, adopting the pen name âÂÂMike OmerâÂÂ. He created the Massachusetts-set city of Glenmore Park for a trilogy beginning with SpiderâÂÂs Web (2016), followed by Deadly Web and Web of Fear.
A side character from SpiderâÂÂs Web, FBI profiler Zoe Bentley, headlined OmerâÂÂs Thomas & MercerâÂÂpublished thrillers: A Killer's Mind (2018), In the Darkness (2019), and Thicker Than Blood (2020). A KillerâÂÂs Mind reached major bestseller lists.
In March 2021 Omer published A Deadly Influence, praised by Kirkus as âÂÂan expert ticking-clock suspenserâÂÂ. Publishers Weekly called the debut âÂÂsmartâÂÂ. Sequels followed: Damaged Intentions (March 2022) and A Burning Obsession (November 2023).
In February, 2024, a TV series based on the novel "A Killer's Mind" (Russian: "ÃÂýÃÂÃÂÃÂø ÃÂñøùÃÂÃÂ") was released in the VOD streaming service Kinopoisk, which acquired the rights to the film adaptation in 2021. The main action of the series was transferred from Chicago to St. Petersburg. The main roles were played by Anastasia Yevgrafova and Tikhon Zhiznevsky.