The Mystery of the Invisible Thief

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief is a children's mystery novel by the English writer Enid Blyton, published in 1950. It is the eighth book in her Five Find-Outers series, which follows a group of children who investigate crimes in their village more successfully than the local police.

The five are having tea at a gymkhana with Inspector Jenks and his god-daughter Hilary when a robbery takes place in a house close by. The thief vanishes from the scene without anybody seeing him, and when it turns out that the burgled house belongs to Hilary's family the children have both a reason and an invitation to look into it.

The clues they are given are physical and awkward: footprints far too large for any ordinary suspect, prints left by a glove, an odd mark in the earth and two pieces of torn paper. Only two people in the village have feet big enough to match the prints, and neither of them looks like a burglar, so Fatty puts his talent for disguise to work while Mr Goon, the village policeman, follows his own and less successful line of enquiry. The thief goes on robbing houses as the holiday continues.