| DISPASSION | Detachment of detectives are dying to nab yours truly |
| OBITUARIST | People are dying to get noticed by him |
| OBITS | Column people are dying to appear in? |
| ANATOMYLAB | Class some people are dying to get into? |
| GRAVEMARKER | "I doubt this will highlight anything, but I hear people are dying to get one!" |
| ERADICATE | Time to get to station, perhaps - detectives are being brought up to scratch |
| ECOSYSTEM | "People are dying. Entire ____s are collapsing." (Greta Thunberg, 2019) |
| INCIDENTALLY | Apropos of where detectives are intellectually foreshortened (12) |
| SUSPECTS | Detectives are aware of these doubts (8) |
| DISTEND | Detectives are inclined to spread out |
| ITCH | Buried in breadfruit, chrysalides are dying |
| SNITCH | Grass verges on Severn are dying |
| PATROL | From "paw about" and "paddle in mud", a word for a beat, guard, night-watch, vigil or other going of the rounds; a detachment of soldiers sent on reconnaissance; or, a subdivision of a troop of Guides |
| DENNIS | Forename of the dramatist whose works including Blue Remembered Hills and The Singing Detective are set in his native Forest of Dean (6) |
| DECIDED | Detectives are indeed very positive! (7) |
| YARDAGE | How old detectives are, by a certain measure (7) |
| SLEUTHS | Little Leslie gets shut in and some detectives are on the case (7) |
| PLACID | Having authority, detectives are calm (6) |
| ACCIDENT | Unplanned occurrence when detectives are lodged in air-conditioned ward (8) |
| SPORADIC | Detectives are ditching English operations, backtracking on an irregular basis |
