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Why wait for a vacation -- although here in the Northeast, I suspect we will be having many mini-vacation snow days this year... Donald Westlake's latest comedy-mystery, *Smoke*, is the perfect antidote to a bad week at school: 'laugh-out-loud' funny, 'now-what' suspenseful, and even "big issue" thought-provoking. It's about a thief who has become invisible -- a quality which could be an asset in his line of work, but which also creates additional, unforeseen (pardon the pun) problems for him. Westlake has a truly inventive mind; as you read, you find yourself wondering how he manages to think up these twists! Along the way, he also manages to take potshots at various aspects of contemporary culture, especially corporate funding of "medical" research. Actually, all of Westlake's books are comedy-mysteries, and all contain some kind of scathing commentary on an aspect of contemporary society, but I do think this is the best one he's ever written. Alice H. Yucht yucht@zodiac.rutgers.edu