| ADULTEROUS | Rule out sad novel - it's unfaithful (10) |
| NAIADS | Water nymphs in a sad novel (6) |
| KOALAS | Knock out, sad to say, furry animals |
| TEARDUCTS | Trade cuts out sad flowers (4,5) |
| SEANHUGHES | Stand-up comedian and actor, author of novels It's What He Would've Wanted and The Detainees, who died in 2017 (4,6) |
| ROOMATTHETOP | Nineteen fifty seven novel, its antihero Joe Lampton |
| EYELESSINGAZA | 1936 Aldous Huxley novel, its title taken from Milton's Samson Agonistes |
| KIMONO | Wrapper of novel - it's horrible! (6) |
| EREWHON | Samuel Butler's satirical novel - it's an anagram of nowhere |
| EASYLISTENING | Seeing saintly novel, it's simply noted? |
| ADORED | Do read novel - it's much loved (6) |
| HEIGHTS | Great Yorkshire novel - it's right huge when revised (9,7) |
| WUTHERING | Great Yorkshire novel - it's right huge when revised (9,7) |
| YOUNGISH | The issue with his novel - it's slightly immature (8) |
| CHILDISH | The issue with his novel - it's juvenile (8) |
| GIOCONDA | Go with coda in novel - it's Portrait of a Lady |
| READ | Enjoy a novel - it's different, dear (4) |
| AMPERSAND | Read an MP's novel, it's set in Bosnia & Herzegovina, for instance |
| WHATSYOURPOISON | With a notorious spy novel, it's been overlooked in local enquiry? |
| HUGHES | Sean, Irish comedian and author of the novels It's What He Would've Wanted and The Detainees (6) |
