This one starts pretty well, with a man (Chris Adams) wrongly convicted of murder, escaping into the swamps where he makes some unlikely allies who help him in his quest for the truth. Other than an excuse for the wanted man to don a costume that makes it easier for him to escape detection, however, Grantland doesn't really take advantage of the book's Mardi Gras setting (Mobile, not New Orleans). This is pretty well written, but there is never a real sense of suspense, since the only one we know for sure is chasing Adams is a rather ineffectual police lieutenant with a personal grudge against Adams - he was in love with the murdered girl, as were half of the men in Mobile, apparently.

It turns out that "Keith Grantland" was a pseudonym used by the great short story writer, Charles Beaumont, to write this book. John E. Tomerlin is also listed as an author. This doesn't read like anything else I've read by Beaumont, however. ( )