Squalid detectives set up man and woman (10)
I believe the answer is:
dickensian
'squalid detectives set up' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'man and woman' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'ian'.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'woman' becomes 'dickens' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ian' after 'dickens' is 'DICKENSIAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dickensian that I've seen before include "Like the author of Oliver Twist" , "conditions so squalid?" , "Twist perhaps" , "Literary" , "Involving very poor social conditions -- case in kind (anag)" .)