Bubbles Yablonsky: hairdresser and journalist in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, by Sarah Strohmeyer

Li Yan: Chinese detective, and Margaret Campbell, an American pathologist, in Beijing, China, by Peter May

MacLaren Yarbrough: business-owner turned magistrate in Hopemore, Georgia, in the Thoroughly Southern mysteries, by Patricia Houck Sprinkle

Gil Yates: private investigator, alias Malvin Stark, a nerdy, unsuccessful real estate agent, in Los Angeles, California, by Alistair Boyle

Mike Yeadings: police superintendent, and Angus Mott, a police sergeant, in Thames Valley, England, by Clare Curzon

Jane Yeats: Harley-riding journalist and crime writer, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by Liz Brady

Giles Yeoman: scientist reluctantly working with British intelligence, by Martin Woodhouse

Magdalena Yoder: owner and manager of a Mennonite Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania, in the Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries, by Tamar Myers

Campbell Young: racetrack-loving homicide detective, later a private investigator, and his friend Priam Harvey, a racetrack journalist, mostly in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by J.D. Carpenter

Simon Young: British businessman and intelligence officer struggling with Chinese and Russian agents, in Hong Kong, by John Trenhaile

Cecil Younger: alcoholic private investigator in Sitka, Alaska, by John Straley

Jack Yu: police detective in Chinatown, New York City, by Henry Chang

Shan Tao Yun: Chinese bureaucrat imprisoned in a Himalayan labor camp, by Eliot Pattison