Impossible Crimes Books in Order

The Impossible Crimes series is Jenny Blackhurst’s puzzle-mystery lane, written under the name J.L. Blackhurst. It steps away from her standalone psychological thrillers and leans into locked rooms, clever staging, and crimes that look as if they could not have happened at all. The tone is lighter than her darker domestic suspense, but it still has bite.

At the center are DI Tess Fox and Sarah Jacobs, half-sisters who have taken very different paths. Tess is a police detective trying to do things by the book. Sarah is a con artist who understands tricks, misdirection, and the small lies people miss when they’re looking in the wrong place. They know each other too well, and not well enough.

That is the fun of the series.

Three Card Murder begins with Tess walking into a murder scene that already has personal trouble written all over it. A victim has been thrown from a locked apartment, Tess knows him, and the clues point toward Sarah. The case grows into a run of impossible murders, but the bigger pressure comes from the sisters’ shared past and the uneasy question of whether Tess can trust someone who has built a life around deception.

Smoke and Murders keeps Tess and Sarah together for another strange case, this time tied to the Lewes bonfire celebrations. When the remains of Rupert Millington are discovered inside a burning effigy, the practical questions are immediate: who killed him, how did the body get there, and who benefits from all the smoke and confusion? The mystery then folds in more locked-room tension, keeping the series close to its puzzle roots.

The ongoing thread is not just the crime-solving. It’s Tess and Sarah learning, often badly and reluctantly, how to work as a team. Tess has police training, procedure, and a need for order. Sarah has street smarts, nerve, and an instinct for how cheats think because she is one. Their partnership works because neither woman can solve these cases as cleanly alone.

Readers should expect modern British crime with a classic mystery engine under the bonnet. There are clues, suspects, impossible setups, family secrets, and a lot of friction between two women who share blood but not a rulebook. Start with Three Card Murder, because the sister dynamic matters as much as the murders.