Circuitous route to putting alien into gloomy housing (6)
I believe the answer is:
detour
'circuitous route' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'into gloomy housing' is the wordplay.
'into' becomes 'et' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'gloomy' becomes 'dour' (I've seen this in other clues).
'housing' is an insertion indicator.
'et' going within 'dour' is 'DETOUR'.
'to putting alien' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for detour that I've seen before include "Way round the roadblock" , "Routed (anag.)" , "Indirect route" , "Circuitous alternative to direct path" , "Non-direct route" .)