Sheila Sharpe
Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief is a riveting, wildly entertaining, complex, and adrenaline-fueled art crime novel that is as intriguing as it is satisfying. Nick McCoy wants out of the art forgery business--but not until he exacts revenge on the man who murdered his family years ago. Kate O'Dade, McCoy's former therapist, comes to him for help after mysteriously receiving a painting of Matisse's Open Window from an unknown benefactor. This seemingly innocent meeting to determine its authenticity sets off a chain of events that will take McCoy, O'Dade, Cromwell and his new team of investigators from San Diego to England, and from art forgery to murder.
Rarely do you find such complex characters, intricate plot, a compelling subject, and cunning psychological jousting woven throughout such a memorable story like Sharpe does in Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief.
"A fast-paced and captivating page turner that reverberates with psychological and social relevance."
-- SUSAN POHLMAN, author of Halfway to Each Other and A Time to Seek
"With razor-sharp psychological insight and an insider's look at the often-brutal machinations of the art world, author Sheila Sharpe reveals a world where nothing is as it seems."
-- LISA FUGARD, author of Skinner's Drift, a New York Times Notable Book
About Sheila
Sheila Sharpe is an author, artist, psychologist, and a long-term mystery/thriller addict. As a therapist and struggling artist, Sheila began investigating the dark side of the art world, especially art forgery. This research, plus Sheila’s therapy with creative people, led her to uncover why certain talented but traumatized artists became brilliant forgers. The answers, along with heart-racing suspense, can be found in Book One of her Mystery Thriller Series—Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief—now being marketed. Locked in a Box, the Prequel to Book One is near completion and will soon be marketed.
A painter and storyteller since early childhood, Sheila majored in art at Connecticut College. She was later awarded an MFA in painting and film criticism from the University of California, San Diego. She also worked as an art teacher and social worker before earning a PhD in clinical psychology. Her first professional book, The Ways We Love (Guilford Press, 2000) resulted from her therapeutic efforts to heal broken relationships. The intense passions of love and hate unleashed during psychotherapy sessions fueled and inspired the writing of her first and current psychological thriller.
Sheila lives in Del Mar, California, with her husband, Michael, a professor emeritus at UCSD. Mickey, Sheila’s beloved Coton de Tulear, always came with them on their daily walks by the sea. His joyous presence still scampers beside her, but now only in memory.