| ESCAPESHAFT | Nickname for an elusive detective John? |
| TIPOFONESTONGUE | Place for an elusive word |
| JACK | No head for heights: held by John Bird to be an elusive type (4-1-7) |
| ASHTON | John ___ (actor who reprises his role as retired Beverly Hills detective John Taggart) |
| ELBA | Plays detective John Luther (Idris ___) |
| BELZER | Detective John Munch portrayer Richard |
| EEL | An elver, grig or snig caught by means of basket, buck, trap, sniggle or weel; or, an elusive/evasive character who is slippery or hard to catch (3) |
| BIGFOOT | Great Labour leader, once an elusive creature (7) |
| BADGER | Hound finds an elusive burrowing creature (6) |
| DARKMATTER | Secret affair an elusive universal presence |
| NESS | Loch with an elusive monster |
| MINORITYREPORT | Tom Cruise was detective John Anderton in this 2002 movie (8,6) |
| KINDERGARTENCOP | 1991 film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played undercover detective John Kimble (12,3) |
| WILLOTHEWISP | Article in wood is perhaps originally an elusive thing (4-1-3-4) |
| ORCZY | Novelist who wrote about an elusive, quick-thinking swordsman and escapeartist in The Scarlet Pimpernel (5) |
| PASSAGE | Northwest ___, an elusive and deadly Arctic route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. |
| TAR | Nickname for an old salt or sea dog that is an abbreviation of a word for waterproof canvas/sailcloth or sailors' traditional clothes (3) |
| TRAPPISTMONK | Nickname for an ascetic detective Adrian? |
| CASUALFRIDAY | Nickname for an easygoing detective Joe? |
| SPARKS | Fiery particles occurring when flint is struck with steel, a blacksmith's hammer strikes an anvil or metal is arc welded; or, a nickname for an electrician (6) |
