A mixed bag from Sleuth today: a handful of gems, some fantastic surfaces, and one or two stinkers. Still, variety is the spice of life and all that, so no complaints here.
ACROSS
1. SEDUCTRESS Anagram of cued within stress [tension]
6. SWAP WASP [White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, American conservative] with S [society] brought to the front
9. SUBTERFUGE Sub [substitute, one on bench] + anagram of rug feet
10. BLOC Block [large building] minus K [king]
12. DEJECTEDNESS A nice surface, but a ridiculously vague cryptic definition
15. TURQUOISE S [sun] within anagram of our quiet
17. AVERT (Foye)r within a + vet [doctor – verb, not noun]
18. NICHE Hidden in hispaNIC HErdsmen
19. FORETASTE Eta [Greek character] within Forste(r) [E.M., English novelist]
20. HEARTSTRINGS Hearts [Heart of Midlothian, football team] + Tring [Herts town] + s [special]
24. NOOK No OK [without OK!, celebrity magazine]
25. SANATORIUM Anagram of aroma units
26. EWER Hidden in reversal of stoRE WEekly
27. RECONSIDER E [European] + cons [convicts, prisoners] within rider [further condition]
DOWN
1. SASH Double definition
2. DEBT Deb [debutante, one who came out] + t(rial)
3. CREPE SUZETTE Anagram of puree etc zest
4. RIFLE L [liberal] within rife [very common] to give the rifle manufacturer
5. SIGHTSEER Sight [sounds like site, location] + reversal of Rees [Welsh name]
7. WILDEBEEST Wilde [writer Oscar] + s [south] within beet [plant]
8. PACE SETTER P [power] + ace [excellent] + setter [canine]
11. ADVANTAGEOUS Va [Virginia] within anagram of data eg on US
13. STONEHENGE Tone [mood] within sh [quiet] + Eng [English] + (villag)e
14. CRACK A JOKE Rack [grating (?)] + a + J [judge] within Coke [drink]
16. INFATUATE TU [trade union, group of workers] within in [popular] + fate [lot]
21. IDAHO I [international] + DA [District Attorney] + Ho [house]
22. KIND Double definition
23. EMIR M [money] within Eir(e) [Republic (of Ireland)]
I had defeatedness for 12a……but sadly, I prefer your answer.
Re 14d
In the surface reading ‘grating’ is a verb. But in wordplay it’s a noun that yields ‘shelf, framework, grating’ (on which we keep articles).
Rather
“But in wordplay it’s a noun that yields ‘shelf, framework, RACK’ (on which we keep articles).”
I rather liked 12A and didn’t think it that vague. But I found it a hard puzzle