Sheila Sharpe
LOCKED IN A BOX
Book 2 in the Kate O'Dade Art Crime Book Series
Darkness. A Terrifying Whisper.
The Click of a Lock. Forgotten Memories.
Locked in a Box is a combination of a psychological thriller and a mystery, and a prequel to the first book in the best-selling Kate O'Dade Art Crime book series. Trapped in a stalled, dark elevator, psychologist Kate O’Dade flashes back to a series of childhood memories the night of her opera star father’s murder. She recalls the terror of being pursued and locked in a storage box in the bowels of the Metropolitan Opera, hearing a voice whisper threats. Compelled to investigate the unsolved case, she is forced to face her traumatic past and her life-long fear of uncovering the horrific truth, leading to the shocking revelation of her father’s murderer.
The Bestselling First Book in the Kate O'Dade Art Crime Book Series
"In Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief, Sheila Sharpe dives headlong into the murky waters of identity, obsession, and deception in her smart, psychologically charged thriller. Nick McCoy is trying to walk away from a long career in art forgery, but not before pulling off one final, calculated act of revenge against Dixon Steele, a man with a violent past and far too much power. Meanwhile, his former therapist, Kate O’Dade, still reeling from the loss of her husband, gets pulled back into McCoy’s world when a Matisse painting shows up unannounced on her doorstep. The painting, and her decision to ask Nick for help, set off a chain of events involving stolen art, past crimes, concealed identities, and more than one murder.
The prose is polished, often lyrical, with a painterly attention to detail. The art world is described with both reverence and razor-sharp critique. . . This is a genre-bending literary thriller that lingers long after the final page."
--The Prairies Book Review
About the Book
Being Locked in a Box in the bowels of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House as a child is the terrifying memory psychologist and artist, Kate O’Dade, can no longer suppress, no matter how hard she tries. First introduced in the best-selling debut novel, Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief, by author Sheila Sharpe, Kate must now navigate her own personal harrowing psychological labyrinth that will push her to the brink as she gets closer to the terrifying truth long-buried in the past.
The anniversary of her father’s death sends Kate spiraling into her past, resurrecting old fears and awakening missing fragments of her memory. Boxes. Always boxes. Any kind of box fills her with dread. An elevator. A dusty box filled with painful reminders. The locked boxes stored in her subconscious filled with fragmented recollections too terrifying to open. And one box, a real box, from that horrible night that still causes her paralyzing fear when it seeps out of the hidden corners of her memories. “Katie, Katie, you can’t hide from me.” The whisper as terrifying as the click of the box being locked, trapping her in utter darkness and panic. And the questions that have haunted her for decades: Who locked her in that box? Who killed her father? As her repressed memories slowly begin to coalesce, Kate begins her relentless pursuit of the truth, hoping that discovering those answers will free her from the locked box she’s been emotionally trapped in for a very long time.
Rarely do you find such complex characters; an intricate plot; compelling subject matter; and cunning psychological jousting woven throughout such a memorable story like Sharpe does in Locked in a Box.
About Sheila
Sheila Sharpe has been a therapist for more than forty years, specializing in treating trauma, couples, and artists. Being a detective of sorts to determine patients’ issues and their solutions like she does in The Ways We Love, along with her past history as an artist and fascination with art forgery, led to the creation of her new fiction book series, the Kate O’Dade Art Crime Novels, with Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief being the first book of the series, launching in April 2025.
Her roots in art are long and deep. A painter and storyteller since early childhood, Sharpe earned an undergraduate degree in painting and sculpture, as well as a degree in English Literature, from Connecticut College. Next, she earned an MFA in painting and film criticism from the University of California – San Diego, where she also taught both of those subjects.
Following her stint at UCSD, Sharpe used these creative and artistic skills working as an art teacher and social worker, before earning a PhD in clinical psychology.As a therapist and struggling artist, Sharpe began investigating the dark side of the art world, especially art forgery. This research, plus Sharpe’s therapy with creative people, led her to uncover why certain talented but traumatized artists became brilliant forgers. This research serves as the basis for the Kate O’Dade Art Crime Novels book series.
Sharpe lives in southern California, with her husband, Michael, a professor emeritus at UCSD.
Praise for 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