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When It's Time for Leaving
When his girlfriend dumps him and a dealer rams him off a bridge, Al DeSantis quits the New Haven Police Department. As he plans to head for LA, he learns his father who abandoned him as a kid has deeded him the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency in Georgia.
Now fearing bridges, Al drives to Savannah intending to sell fast and go west, but before he can, he discovers a strong and attractive female detective named Maxine, a dead body on the dock—and his father, alive, suffering from Alzheimer’s, and determined to help his “new partner Al” solve the crime.
Now fearing bridges, Al drives to Savannah intending to sell fast and go west, but before he can, he discovers a strong and attractive female detective named Maxine, a dead body on the dock—and his father, alive, suffering from Alzheimer’s, and determined to help his “new partner Al” solve the crime.
- GenresFiction
282 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
4 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 20, 2019
Al DeSantis quits his job with the police department when he's almost killed by a drug dealer on a large expansion bridge. On the same day he learns that his father who abandoned he and his mother when he was a young child, has deeded him the Palmetto Detective Agency in Georgia. He alaso gets the house, the car, the boat.
He sees dollar signs because there is no way he's going to stay in Georgia ... he has his sights on going to Los Angeles.
He learns, much to his chagrin, his father is still alive and in a home suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's. He has also inherited an office manager and the primary female detective name Max.
He plans on finishing the cases that are still on the books, then selling out. But finding a dead body under his dock changes things. Who was the victim ... who wanted him dead? Al finds himself involved against his will.
This is a well-written crime/mystery, loaded with twists and turns. The characters are finely drawn. I especially love the relationship between father and son. The secondary characters lend a great deal to the story telling. Very entertaining, holding my interest from start to finish.
Many thanks to the author / Encircle Publications / Netgalley for the digital copy of this entertaining mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
He sees dollar signs because there is no way he's going to stay in Georgia ... he has his sights on going to Los Angeles.
He learns, much to his chagrin, his father is still alive and in a home suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's. He has also inherited an office manager and the primary female detective name Max.
He plans on finishing the cases that are still on the books, then selling out. But finding a dead body under his dock changes things. Who was the victim ... who wanted him dead? Al finds himself involved against his will.
This is a well-written crime/mystery, loaded with twists and turns. The characters are finely drawn. I especially love the relationship between father and son. The secondary characters lend a great deal to the story telling. Very entertaining, holding my interest from start to finish.
Many thanks to the author / Encircle Publications / Netgalley for the digital copy of this entertaining mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
November 5, 2019
When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano introduces former police officer Al DeSantis, who must deal with his past, his estranged father, and murder in this debut novel.
Connecticut’s Ang Pompano has been writing mysteries for more than two decades. While his first novel, When It’s Time for Leaving, just came out, his short stories have appeared in several collections, including Malice Domestic’s 2019 anthology, Mystery Most Edible. Pompano has also written several academic pieces, including one on teaching detective fiction. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and once received the Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for a novel in progress. He is also a brother member of Sisters in Crime and longtime board member of their local chapter. Additionally, Pompano has served on the planning committee for New England Crime Bake for 14 years.
When It’s Time for Leaving introduces beleaguered policeman Al DeSantis, who quits the New Haven PD after a particularly bad stretch in which his girlfriend leaves him for a fellow cop and then he’s nearly killed in a high-speed altercation with a local drug dealer. Having severed those ties, he plans to relocate to a condo in Los Angeles and begin anew—until the past comes calling. It turns out that DeSantis’s father, who abandoned him as a child and was said to be dead, is actually living in Savannah, Georgia, where he’s just been admitted to a nursing home for dementia care. But not before deeding his business, the Blue Palm Detective Agency, to his son.
While Al expects his time in Savannah to be short—after all, he’s only there to tie up some loose ends—the discovery of a dead body washed up on the agency’s dock tends to indicate that things are going to be far more complicated. So, too, the fact that he keeps getting calls from the nursing home threatening to discharge his frequently agitated and defiant father, Big Al. Despite not wanting to have any contact with the man, young Al can’t risk the repercussions and begins to take his father out for periods of respite; Big Al still has a PI’s inclinations and believes he’s now on the case with his new “partner.” But when he goes missing in the aftermath of a second killing and evidence starts to incriminate him in the crimes, it becomes Al Junior’s job to find his father and the real killer before there’s a devastating miscarriage of justice. Read John Valeri's full review on our blog!
Connecticut’s Ang Pompano has been writing mysteries for more than two decades. While his first novel, When It’s Time for Leaving, just came out, his short stories have appeared in several collections, including Malice Domestic’s 2019 anthology, Mystery Most Edible. Pompano has also written several academic pieces, including one on teaching detective fiction. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and once received the Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for a novel in progress. He is also a brother member of Sisters in Crime and longtime board member of their local chapter. Additionally, Pompano has served on the planning committee for New England Crime Bake for 14 years.
When It’s Time for Leaving introduces beleaguered policeman Al DeSantis, who quits the New Haven PD after a particularly bad stretch in which his girlfriend leaves him for a fellow cop and then he’s nearly killed in a high-speed altercation with a local drug dealer. Having severed those ties, he plans to relocate to a condo in Los Angeles and begin anew—until the past comes calling. It turns out that DeSantis’s father, who abandoned him as a child and was said to be dead, is actually living in Savannah, Georgia, where he’s just been admitted to a nursing home for dementia care. But not before deeding his business, the Blue Palm Detective Agency, to his son.
While Al expects his time in Savannah to be short—after all, he’s only there to tie up some loose ends—the discovery of a dead body washed up on the agency’s dock tends to indicate that things are going to be far more complicated. So, too, the fact that he keeps getting calls from the nursing home threatening to discharge his frequently agitated and defiant father, Big Al. Despite not wanting to have any contact with the man, young Al can’t risk the repercussions and begins to take his father out for periods of respite; Big Al still has a PI’s inclinations and believes he’s now on the case with his new “partner.” But when he goes missing in the aftermath of a second killing and evidence starts to incriminate him in the crimes, it becomes Al Junior’s job to find his father and the real killer before there’s a devastating miscarriage of justice. Read John Valeri's full review on our blog!
October 3, 2019
Al DeSantis, having nearly been rammed of a bridge quits the New Haven Police Department with plans to move to LA and take early retirement, but fate has other plans for him when he receives a call from Blue Palmetto Detective Agency. It turns out Al's father who he presumed was dead has been living in Georgia and owns the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency, which he has now left to him. Al heads to Georgia with the sole purpose of selling the agency and moving to LA.
Only when he gets there he discovers his father is still very much alive and suffering from dementia and he ends up getting involved with a murder investigation after finding a dead body on his dock! It would seen that the odds of fate are stacking against him selling the agency.
This was good mystery, with rough around edges characters. I could feel Al's frustrations at his father and his conflicting emotions at discovering his estranged father being alive and yet unable to have a relationship with him due to the dementia.
Overall I really enjoyed this mystery and the host of characters, and I hope we get to read more about both Al's in the future.
Only when he gets there he discovers his father is still very much alive and suffering from dementia and he ends up getting involved with a murder investigation after finding a dead body on his dock! It would seen that the odds of fate are stacking against him selling the agency.
This was good mystery, with rough around edges characters. I could feel Al's frustrations at his father and his conflicting emotions at discovering his estranged father being alive and yet unable to have a relationship with him due to the dementia.
Overall I really enjoyed this mystery and the host of characters, and I hope we get to read more about both Al's in the future.
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May 9, 2020DNF. Al DeSantis, somewhere in his mid-30s, was a police detective, but after almost dying, he quits. At the same time he finds out his father, who disappeared from his life almost 30 tears ago, has Alzheimer's, and now Al (jr.) owns a house and a PI agency in Ava Island, just outside Savannah. His plan is just to wrap things there and move on, but plans can change.
This seemed like an interesting enough PI novel, and it really is that, but also, it was not for me in the end. It was solidly written, and I read enough to say that I liked the MC Al DeSantis well enough. However, there were elements, that put me off, especially the message of "get over that your father abandoned you as a child" that one of the characters, the secretary of the Agency, Mrs. Greenleaf, states more than once. Also, in the blurb the senior investigator of the firm, Maxine "Max" Brophy, is described as "strong and attractive female detective". I noticed a few years back that if the woman investigator of a crime fiction novel was described as 'beautiful' in the blurb, I'd quite likely have issues with how she was depicted in the book. In this case she is at least not 'beautiful' but 'attractive' and also 'strong'. And still, well, I'm not quite sure what I think about her, I really did not read that far. But it seems Al thinks she is attractive and also potentially badass, and also that she can hold her own. Al Sr. has a role in the book, too, and he seems to be an older man with strong personality.
So, this was not for me, but I read enough that I can see this can work for others.
This seemed like an interesting enough PI novel, and it really is that, but also, it was not for me in the end. It was solidly written, and I read enough to say that I liked the MC Al DeSantis well enough. However, there were elements, that put me off, especially the message of "get over that your father abandoned you as a child" that one of the characters, the secretary of the Agency, Mrs. Greenleaf, states more than once. Also, in the blurb the senior investigator of the firm, Maxine "Max" Brophy, is described as "strong and attractive female detective". I noticed a few years back that if the woman investigator of a crime fiction novel was described as 'beautiful' in the blurb, I'd quite likely have issues with how she was depicted in the book. In this case she is at least not 'beautiful' but 'attractive' and also 'strong'. And still, well, I'm not quite sure what I think about her, I really did not read that far. But it seems Al thinks she is attractive and also potentially badass, and also that she can hold her own. Al Sr. has a role in the book, too, and he seems to be an older man with strong personality.
So, this was not for me, but I read enough that I can see this can work for others.
July 10, 2025
WHEN IT'S TIME FOR LEAVING by Ang Pompano
Bridges and Other Disasters
When man plans . . . the gods laugh (or so I’ve been told).
Al Delucia’s careful retirement plans crash, literally and fiscally, in a dramatic collision that leaves him afraid to drive on bridges. He dramatically throws in his badge, early and unplanned-for retirement toppling all his plans, but hope comes from the father he thought was dead — ownership of the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency in Savannah, sale of which can finance his move to L.A. First he has to clear up a few pending cases, easier said than done.
Murders, dangerous unknown enemies, and his father’s problematic dementia episodes complicate his plans, as growing friendships and romance make him less eager to leave. This was a wild ride, with good people, beautiful sunsets, and very twisty mysteries . . . and alligators! I loved sharing the adventure . . . without mosquitos, thanks so much, and would like to see more of Al and Max and friends.
Bridges and Other Disasters
When man plans . . . the gods laugh (or so I’ve been told).
Al Delucia’s careful retirement plans crash, literally and fiscally, in a dramatic collision that leaves him afraid to drive on bridges. He dramatically throws in his badge, early and unplanned-for retirement toppling all his plans, but hope comes from the father he thought was dead — ownership of the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency in Savannah, sale of which can finance his move to L.A. First he has to clear up a few pending cases, easier said than done.
Murders, dangerous unknown enemies, and his father’s problematic dementia episodes complicate his plans, as growing friendships and romance make him less eager to leave. This was a wild ride, with good people, beautiful sunsets, and very twisty mysteries . . . and alligators! I loved sharing the adventure . . . without mosquitos, thanks so much, and would like to see more of Al and Max and friends.
June 4, 2025
Feels Like a 1950's P.I.
There is a real "old-time movie" feel to this cinematic mystery. From the explosive beginning on a New Haven bridge to the big reveal in an alligator infested canal, with foot chases and stake-outs in between, the story is made for film. Our narrator, detective Al DeSantis, doesn't share all his thoughts with us as he puts the pieces together to solve a murder that has clues going back to a decades old kidnapping case that his P.I. father was famous for solving. With a very likable protagonist and some interesting side characters, I think I'll stick around for more books in this series.
There is a real "old-time movie" feel to this cinematic mystery. From the explosive beginning on a New Haven bridge to the big reveal in an alligator infested canal, with foot chases and stake-outs in between, the story is made for film. Our narrator, detective Al DeSantis, doesn't share all his thoughts with us as he puts the pieces together to solve a murder that has clues going back to a decades old kidnapping case that his P.I. father was famous for solving. With a very likable protagonist and some interesting side characters, I think I'll stick around for more books in this series.
March 26, 2020
Ang Pompano's debut novel is clever and engaging from the very first page. I hope this is a first in a series featuring Al DeSantis..
September 29, 2020
This was a good book, good characters, good plot....I wanted to read another, but neither of my libraries have any
March 8, 2020
When his girlfriend dumps him and a dealer rams him off a bridge, Al DeSantis quits the New Haven Police Department. As he plans to head for LA, he learns his father who abandoned him as a kid has deeded him the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency in Georgia.
Now fearing bridges, Al drives to Savannah intending to sell fast and go west, but before he can, he discovers a strong and attractive female detective named Maxine, a dead body on the dock—and his father, alive, suffering from Alzheimer’s, and determined to help his “new partner Al” solve the crime.
A lot of action and great characters. A very good read!
Now fearing bridges, Al drives to Savannah intending to sell fast and go west, but before he can, he discovers a strong and attractive female detective named Maxine, a dead body on the dock—and his father, alive, suffering from Alzheimer’s, and determined to help his “new partner Al” solve the crime.
A lot of action and great characters. A very good read!
October 1, 2019
This book has an engaging premise: A burnt-out New Jersey detective quits the force and heads for Los Angeles, by way of Savannah, Georgia, where his absent, deadbeat father has summoned him (their first contact in 28 years). Al DeSantis, Jr. (the detective) learns that his father (Al Senior) is under residential treatment for Alzheimer's, and wants his son to take over his private detective agency.
Al Jr. has to repeat his intentions (over and over) to sell up, clear out, and continue on to California -- but delays keep cropping up. (Did anyone else see the comedy "Support Your Local Sheriff," starring James Garner, who agrees to serve as temporary sheriff, but who is actually bound for Australia? That's the mood here.)
Sadly, I found the writing amateurish and the characters shallow -- particularly the females, although there were caricatures aplenty among the men as well. Max, the neighbor and new love interest, particularly bugged me: Wildly inconsistent behavior does not a complex character make. I think the head of the nursing home was meant to be kooky, but she was so freakishly unprofessional that she wouldn't have lasted a week on such a job.
So, yes, I was disappointed. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to try out another new-to-me author, via an advance readers copy.
Al Jr. has to repeat his intentions (over and over) to sell up, clear out, and continue on to California -- but delays keep cropping up. (Did anyone else see the comedy "Support Your Local Sheriff," starring James Garner, who agrees to serve as temporary sheriff, but who is actually bound for Australia? That's the mood here.)
Sadly, I found the writing amateurish and the characters shallow -- particularly the females, although there were caricatures aplenty among the men as well. Max, the neighbor and new love interest, particularly bugged me: Wildly inconsistent behavior does not a complex character make. I think the head of the nursing home was meant to be kooky, but she was so freakishly unprofessional that she wouldn't have lasted a week on such a job.
So, yes, I was disappointed. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to try out another new-to-me author, via an advance readers copy.
October 18, 2019
It's a compelling detective mystery, with a bit of romance and lots of action and suspense. It is very well written, the plot is well intertwined and the pace is flowing.
Al has the chance to change his life after breaking up with his ex-girlfriend Kim. His father, who he has not seen for twenty-eight years, is admitted to a clinic because of senile dementia and has left him a home and a detective agency in Savannah. Here he also has a boat, a nice car and a precious and attractive colleague Max. Together they must investigate a body found at the dock behind his father's house.
The characters are well characterized, Al and Max are a great couple, intelligent, with great investigative skills and with a great harmony between them. The old Al is an unbearable grumbler.
To read for those who love classic detective stories
Al has the chance to change his life after breaking up with his ex-girlfriend Kim. His father, who he has not seen for twenty-eight years, is admitted to a clinic because of senile dementia and has left him a home and a detective agency in Savannah. Here he also has a boat, a nice car and a precious and attractive colleague Max. Together they must investigate a body found at the dock behind his father's house.
The characters are well characterized, Al and Max are a great couple, intelligent, with great investigative skills and with a great harmony between them. The old Al is an unbearable grumbler.
To read for those who love classic detective stories
October 2, 2019
Intriguing Southern Mystery. This is a solid mystery set mostly in the South Ga coastal region along I-95, with appearances from coastal Connecticut in the opener and mentions of the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA to locals) and specifically Aiken, SC and Augusta, Ga. The action is somewhat laid back yet flowing, much like the Savannah River it takes place on the shores of. Overall not quite a "cozy mystery" and yet also not an action-packed Reacher or Gone Girl type, this is a solid entry for readers who enjoy mysteries without all the darkness, confusion, and action. Very much recommended.
February 26, 2020
Excellent debut to a new series! Writer is very detail-oriented so the reader can "see" the locations and what is happening at every chapter. Descriptions of characters are made so that we can get the connections to other characters. That is not to say that readers don't need to try connecting the dots because the author gives enough red herrings the reader must join the PI in solving many mysteries. I was pleased the answers were not easy but not so difficult I would stop eagerly turning pages to see what happens next! This book could be read in one day as there are only 282 pages in the paperback I read. I can hardly wait to read more books in this series. Bravo!
October 21, 2019
Readers who like PI novels with lots twists will love Ang Pompano's "When it's Time for Leaving." Like any good mystery, it's hard to know the good guys from the bad guys all the way to the end. Every time I thought I was ahead of the author in figuring out the plot, he took a sharp turn that left me behind and scrambling to catch up. Readers who like the genre will like this book. Well done!
October 24, 2019
Al DeSantis PI
Very entertaining and intriguing storyline about a detective who quits the police force, inherits a Detective agency from his long lost father and goes Ava Island to check it out and maybe sell the agency. Awesome storyline, intriguing characters and some funny lines.
Very entertaining and intriguing storyline about a detective who quits the police force, inherits a Detective agency from his long lost father and goes Ava Island to check it out and maybe sell the agency. Awesome storyline, intriguing characters and some funny lines.
January 5, 2020
Great characters!
I was drawn to the description of the book that the author posted on Facebook. Turns out to be a good representation of the plot and premise. The characters are unique and crotchety. And funny. I’ll continue to follow Ang Pompano for future books in this series.
I was drawn to the description of the book that the author posted on Facebook. Turns out to be a good representation of the plot and premise. The characters are unique and crotchety. And funny. I’ll continue to follow Ang Pompano for future books in this series.
September 14, 2019
This is a well written detective story with a good and intricate plot. The characters are the best, however, as you will have no problem seeing them in you head. The setting is also great, and I'll be waiting for more.
December 26, 2019
I absolutely loved this book! It is an intriguing detective mystery with lots of plot twists. it is well written with plenty of action. The fact that it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys defines this book as a good mystery. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
January 30, 2020
Really enjoyed this book! Al DeSantis, Jr retires from the New Haven Police Dept, and goes to Ga to take over his father’s detective agency. The ensuing story is fun and full of twists and turns. Hoping for a sequel!
November 16, 2020
Interesting
Well crafted, great physical descriptions of the location. Characters are well presented, leaving leaving room for future growth. Fun read
Well crafted, great physical descriptions of the location. Characters are well presented, leaving leaving room for future growth. Fun read
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