Kari Vaara: police chief in the town of Kittilä, Lapland, later a homicide inspector in Helsinki, Finland, by James Thompson

Superintendant Vachell: former Canadian mountie, in British colonial Africa, by Elspeth Huxley

Karen Vail: profiler for the FBI, by Alan Jacobson

Martin Vail: defense attorney in Chicago, Illinois, by William Diehl

Steve Vail: renegade FBI agent who leaves the bureau to work as a bricklayer in Chicago, and FBI deputy assistant director Kate Bannon who enlists his help, by Noah Boyd (Paul Lindsay)

Amanda Valentine: lesbian detective inspector in Wellington, New Zealand, by Rose Beecham

Claudia Valentine: private investigator, in Sydney, Australia, by Marele Day

Dan Valentine (gay), and Clarisse Lovelace (straight), owners of a gay bar in Boston, Massachusetts, by Nathan Aldyne

George Valentine, detective sergeant, and Peter Shaw, detective inspector, in Norfolk, England, by Jim Kelly

Jack Valentine: middle-aged British intelligence agent in the 1970s, in Ireland and elsewhere, by John Creed (Eoin McNamee)

Lucy Valentine: the black sheep of a psychic matchmaking family, now running the family business, Valentine, Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts, by Heather Webber

Nicki Valentine, a widow with two kids, training to be a private investigator in suburban Washington, DC, by Susan O’Brien

Tony Valentine: ex-cop investigator specializing in catching casino cheats in Las Vegas, Nevada, by James Swain

Johnny Vallon: by Peter Cheyney

Russ Van Alystyne: Chief of Police, and Clare Fergusson, a newly-ordained Episcopal priest, in Millers Kill, New York by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Philo Vance: art connoisseur and private investigator in New York City, by S.S. Van Dine

Lauren Vancouver: head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter, north of Los Angeles, California, in the Pet Rescue mysteries by Linda O. Johnston

Binky Van de Kamp: sidekick to Doan McCandler, a gay private investigator in San Francisco, California, by Orland Outland

Persia Rose Vanderbilt: working in the Venus Envy bath and beauty shop in Gull Harbor, Washington, in the Bath and Body mysteries by India Ink (Yasmine Galenorn)

Willow Vanderling: who left a corporate job to open a machine embroidery shop in fictional Elderberry Bay, Pennsylvania, in the Threadville mysteries by Janet Bolin

Piet Van Der Valk, a police inspector, and his wife Arlette Van Der Valk, a gourmet cook, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, by Nicolas Freeling

Makedde Vanderwall: part-time Canadian model and forensic psychology student, in Sydney, Australia (and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), by Tara Moss

Kristin “Baby Shark” Van Dijk: pool hustler turned private investigator in west Texas, by Robert Fate

Augustus “The Thinking Machine” S.F.X. Van Dusen: professor in Boston, Massachusetts, by Jacques Futrelle

Richard Vaness: American pilot, by Mansell Black (Adam Hall)

Pieter Van In: police inspector, in Bruges, Belgium, by Pieter Aspe

Max Van Larsen: police detective, and Sylvia Plotkin, an author and teacher, in New York City, by George Baxt

Richard Curtis Van Loan (The Phantom of 1930s-40s fame), drawn out of retirement, in 1950s southern California, in the Phantom Detective Agency mysteries by Robert Reginald

Vic Varallo: small-town cop who moves to Glendale, California, by Lesley Egan (Elizabeth Linington)

VMelanie Vargas: federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, New York, by Michele Martinez

Barry Vaughan: history lecturer and spoofy crime writer, and Dee Vaughan, an office temp wife, in Woodfield, England, by Jennifer Jordan

Robin Vaughan: equestrienne in Texas, by Carolyn Banks

Sabrina Vaughn: homicide detective (and former teenage abduction victim) in San Francisco, California, by Maegan Beaumont

Jimmy Veeder: semi-reformed brawler in the desert of Southern California, near the Calexico/Mexicali border, by Johnny Shaw

Clare Vengel: rookie police officer who goes undercover, starting out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by Robin Spano

Veronica “Ronnie” Ventana: Mexican-Anglo private investigator, in San Francisco, California, by Gloria White

Michael Venturi: deputy U.S. marshall involved in running the Federal Witness Protection Program, by Edna Buchanan

Burçak Veral: a transvestite nightclub hostess by night, and computer technician by day, in Istanbul, Turkey, in the Turkish Delight mysteries, by Mehmet Murat Somer

Gillian Verdean: boat owner in Long Island, New York, by Tony Gibbs

Camille Verhoeven: short, pugnacious police commandant (detective chief inspector), in Paris, France, by Pierre Lemaître

Mr. Verity: large, cigar-smoking sleuth who investigates only between tea and supper, in England, by Peter Antony

William Verity: detective sergeant mostly in mid-19th century London, England, by Francis Selwyn (Donald Thomas)

Antoine Verlaque: the chief magistrate of Aix, and his love interest, law professor Marine Bonnet, in Aix-en-Provence, France, by M.L. Longworth

Mme. Victoire Vernet: the French wife of a Napoleonic gendarme, by Quinn Fawcett (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro)

Richard Verrell, known as Blackshirt, a self-educated founding who becomes a respected mystery author, and burgles for the fun of it, in England by David Graeme

Varg Veum: private investigator in Bergen, Norway, by Gunnar Staalesen

Harry Vicary: detective inspector and recovering alcoholic, in London, England, by Peter Turnbull

Rosie Vicente: a carpenter, and Jake Samson, an ex-cop, in Berkeley, California, by Shelley Singer

Emma Victor: private investigator in San Francisco, California, (Boston, Massachusetts, in the first book), by Mary Wings

Vierling, Francesca: a 6-ft. newspaper columnist in St. Louis, Missouri by Elaine Viets

Johanne Vik: Oslo University psychology professor and former FBI profiler, and Adam Stubø, a detective inspector, in Oslo, Norway, by Anne Holt

Nan Vining: homicide detective along with her partner, Jim Kissick, and single mom to Emily, in Pasadena, California, by Dianne Emley

Turbo Vlost: an ex-KGB operative, now a private investigator in New York City, by David Duffy

Hannah Vogel: crime reporter in 1930s Berlin, Germany, by Rebecca Cantrell

Alekei “Volk” Volkovoy: wounded Chechnya veteran, now a gangster and covert military operative, in Russia, by Brent Ghelfi

Oliver von Bodenstein, Kriminalhauptkommissar (chief superintendant), and his colleague Pia Kirchhoff, a police detective, in the Tanus mountain region of Germany, by Nele Neuhaus

Alexander von Reisden: young Austrian biochemist, and Perdita Halley, a concert pianist, first in pre-WWI Boston, Massachusetts, and then Paris, France, by Sarah Smith

Conrad Voort: NYPD's richest detective, in New York City, by Ethan Black (Bob Reiss)

Jack Vu: Vietnamese-American investigator for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and elsewhere, by Doc Macomber