Let's Go Play at the Adams'

Let's Go Play at the Adams' is a 1974 psychological horror novel by Mendal W. Johnson and originally published by Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Its plot focuses on a group of rural Maryland children who drug, incapacitate, and eventually torture the college student babysitter hired by their parents while they are away in Europe for two weeks.^[2]

Johnson was a resident of Annapolis, Maryland. He died on February 6, 1976.^[3]

The novel was originally published in the United States by Thomas Y. Crowell Co.^[1] In 2020, Valancourt Books republished it in paperback format under its Paperbacks from Hell series, featuring its original mass-market paperback artwork, and including a new introduction by Grady Hendrix.^[2] In 2022, Centipede Press issued a hardback edition, with a limited 500 copies signed by Stefan Dziemianowicz and Dan Rempel, who wrote a new introduction.^[4]

A reviewer for Fort Lauderdale News praised the novel, writing that Johnson "is a master of the art of storytelling and suspense, but this one isn't for the squeamish."^[5] Sheryl Friedlander, writing for The Tampa Tribune, compared the novel favorably to The Collector and Lord of the Flies, praising its "style and flow of thought" as "smooth and interesting".^[6] It was also compared to A High Wind in Jamaica by William W. Starr, writing for The State.^[7] A reviewer for The StarPhoenix described the plot as "savage humanity", saying that they wanted to shower after reading it.^[8]

Writing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Clarence E. Olson criticized the book for its extreme violence, saying its themes are "superficial" and that a readers' interest is only maintained through brutality.^[9]