Group books houses and suchlike to the north (5)
I believe the answer is:
octet
'group' is the definition.
(group of eight musicians)
'books houses and suchlike to the north' is the wordplay.
'books' becomes 'OT' (abbreviation for Old Testament).
'houses' is an insertion indicator.
'and suchlike' becomes 'etc' (et cetera).
'to the north' says the letters should be written in reverse (in a down clue, letters go up or 'northward').
'etc' backwards is 'cte'.
'ot' enclosing 'cte' is 'OCTET'.
(Other definitions for octet that I've seen before include "Musical group" , "Piece for eight players" , "Set of eight" , "Composition for eight musicians" , "Lines of verse" .)