Dave turns up in an American state (6)
I believe the answer is:
nevada
'american state' is the definition.
(I know that Nevada is U.S. state)
'dave turns up in' is the wordplay.
'turns' is an anagram indicator.
'up' becomes 'na' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'dave' is an anagram of 'evad'.
'evad' inserted into 'na' is 'NEVADA'.
'an' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nevada that I've seen before include "US state, NV" , "See 14" , "Curiously, Dan and Eva are in the US" , "South-west US state" , "American state, capital Carson City" .)