Writer	Who	Where	When	How Much	Why
Van Ash, Cay	Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith	England	early 1900s		Fu Manchu is whodunnit
Van Dine, S. S.	Philo Vance	New York, NY	1920s		Philo Vance is wealthy New Yorker who solves crimes (crimes that have baffled the police) with his understanding of psychology
Van Giesen, Judith	Claire Reynier	Albuquerque, NM	Present		Claire is archivist at the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico
Vatsal, Radha	Capability "Kitty" Weeks	New York, NY	1915		Kitty wants to be a journalist, but as a woman, the only newspaper job she can get is Ladies Page Assistant. (Women are not allowed in the news room at The New York Sentinal.) When a murder occurs while Kitty is covering a society party, she phones the news in to the Sentinel's news desk, and she gets to assist with investigating and writing the story.
Veryan, Patricia	John Vespa (Jack)	London, Salisbury, and rural Dorsett, England	1813		After he completed his duty as an aide to Wellington in Spain, Jack decided to live in an estate his family owned in Dorsett, called Alabaster Royale. When he was driving to Dorsett, another coach ran him off the road and took off without offering help. When Jack rode his remaining horse to Alabaster Royale, he found that someone has pushed down the sign, and when he arrived, he found the house empty even though his solicitor had hired a caretaker. Jack rode to the nearest town and found that his caretaker has been arrested for fighting in a pub. The caretaker told Jack he would work at Alabaster Royale in the daytime, but he wouldn't stay overnight because the place was haunted. Jack learns that a famous painter, Preston Jones, was murdered at Alabaster Royale, and Jack discovers a tunnel that runs from a nearby quarry to Alabaster Royale's basement and that the eerie events and noises are humans trying to frighten him away from his house. He eventually discovers who murder Preston Jones and why some people want the house deserted. Some nits, but overall very enjoyable.