Intimidate crime writer, blowing kiss (5)
I believe the answer is:
deter
'intimidate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'crime writer blowing kiss' is the wordplay.
'crime writer' becomes 'dexter' (Colin Dexter).
'blowing' indicates named letters should be taken away (blow can mean to displace).
'kiss' becomes 'x'.
'dexter' with 'x' taken out is 'DETER'.
(Other definitions for deter that I've seen before include "Check" , "Cause not to do something" , "Discourage, put off" , "Try to prevent" , "'Discourage, dissuade (5)'" .)