Detective's men reportedly in plain clothes? (8)
I believe the answer is:
disguise
'plain clothes?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'detective's men reportedly' is the wordplay.
'detective's' becomes 'di's' (Detective Inspector).
'men' becomes 'guys' (guy can informally mean a man).
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'guys' sounds like 'guise'.
'dis'+'guise'='DISGUISE'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for disguise that I've seen before include "front" , "Pretence" , "Conceal (a feeling)" , "Make unrecognizable" , "Conceal (one's identity)" .)