Inspector left facing novel problem (7)
I believe the answer is:
dilemma
'problem' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'inspector left facing novel' is the wordplay.
'inspector' becomes 'di' (I've seen this in other clues).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'facing' says to put letters next to each other.
'novel' becomes 'emma' (I've seen this before**).
'di'+'l'+'emma'='DILEMMA'
(Other definitions for dilemma that I've seen before include "Shavian doctor's problem" , "a problem for Shaw's doctor" , "Dim male (anag.)" , "Catch-22" , "Difficulty (with two choices?)" .)