Smoke

Due to a foiled burglary in a high-tech lab doing research for cigarette manufacturers, Freddie Noon, the thief, is now invisible. This condition has clear-cut advantages for a man in Freddie's profession, but now everybody wants a glimpse of Freddie. But Freddie doesn't dare show his face, his shadow, anything. Because Freddie Noon has gotten a taste of invisibility--and he can't quit now. WARNING: Reading Donald Westlake may lead to shortness of breath, prolonged chortles, outbreaks of hysterical laughter, and sudden, drop-dead surprises. Poof! One minute Freddie Urban Noon was a burglar, a gentleman, and a liar. The next he was something else: Invisible. It all started in a secret research lab where two scientists were getting rich proving that cigarettes are good for you. Then Freddie broke in, swallowed a pair of experimental formulas, and vanished in a puff of smoke. Which would have been a boon for his burglary career (except you can't wear shoes, and there's nowhere to hide the loot), if everyone didn't see an angle in it. Now a crooked cop wants Freddy. Criminals want Freddy. And the Tobacco Research Institute wants Freddy. For America's best invisible thief, things are getting hazardous indeed: one false step, and Freddy Noon goes up in smoke. A New York burglar breaks into a tobacco research institute, is captured and used as a guinea pig for an experiment in invisibility. He escapes and grows rich, but his girlfriend finds his invisibility unsettling and, anyway, all good things come to an end. By the author of Baby, Would I Lie?