Detective describes short story one finds appealing on the box (9)
I believe the answer is:
telegenic
'detective describes short story' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'one finds appealing on the box' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'on' could be 'leg' (cricket term, fielding positions) and 'leg' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for telegenic that I've seen before include "Coming over on the tube" , "having broadcast appeal" , "appealing to viewers" , "Nice to watch" , "attractive on screen" .)