Spies was well-received by the literary community, with many critics praising Frayn for his creative and original approach. [2] Once published, Spies went on to win the 2002 Whitbread Novel of the year for achievement in literary excellence, and the 2002 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature.

Stephen persists in spying on Keith's mother, even though Keith no longer plays with him. One day, Keith's mother approaches him, indicating that she knows about his activities. She warns Stephen that Keith will no longer be allowed to play with him if they continue spying. Before leaving, she insists that their conversation must remain a secret. Spies is divided into 11 numbered sections and the first and last of these are like a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue has many of the clues as to the meaning of the memories that follow. The point of these is that they have to be noticed as clues. The narrator's vivid "glimpses" of the past may come "in random sequence", but we must guess that they are not random in the least. "A shower of sparks ... A feeling of shame ... Someone unseen coughing, trying not to be heard ... A jug covered by a lace weighted with four blue beads ..." If we remember this passage as we read, our attention will snag on these elements as we encounter them again and we will reach for the hidden connections between them. Stephen is a follower, not a leader, a second child prey to bullies at school, who is befriended by Keith, a lonely child from a better school. Keith develops a fantasy that his mother is a German spy, and co-opts Stephen into a scheme to spy on her. The game becomes more serious because she does indeed have secrets, and the nature of these secrets and their gradual revelation form the core of the book, along with what Stephen learns about his own family. Spies draws much of its force from the narrative's subtly inverted echoes of other novels." - Jonathan Keates, Times Literary Supplement The theme of Spies felt very familiar, a theme recurrent in film and literature, for instance in Whistle Down The Wind, in The Go-Between and, of course, in Atonement. I seem to remember saying Atonement was like the Go Between, now I'm saying Spies is like the Go Between and Atonement . How long before there is a book that is like the Go Between, Atonement and Spies?

As such, it is full of tender, latent comedy, but Frayn fights the impulse to play things for laughs. His previous novel, Headlong , was marred by an insistent humorousness at odds with a dark story, but here he refrains from the jokes that come so easily to him. That he is tempted is shown by some suppressed by play on the name of the definitive shrub of suburbia. Keith, whose spelling is not his strong point, writes 'Privet', meaning 'private', near their favourite hide, which is, as it happens, surrounded by privet.

Events in the Close don't bear close examination, even if the secrets the boys uncover, without quite understanding them, are relatively mundane. No less painful for that.A subplot is also included in the novel, where Stephen finds comfort in Barbara Berrill– a girl Stephen's age living in his neighbourhood– who is used as a plot device for revealing very important information that helps Stephen understand the mysteries he is uncovering. Barbara is also an important part of Stephen's transition from the childish world that he shared with Keith to the adult world, filled with complications but also understanding.

Older Stephen's declining memory results in his search for clarification and closure, as Frayn uses a blend of different narrative viewpoints to distinguish what young Stephen thought was accurate at the time and reality. Update this section! Stephen fast-forwards the narrative to when he and Keith create an official hiding spot where they can spy on Keith’s mother in the privet hedges that adorn the front of Miss Durrant’s bombed house. They swear to never tell anyone about their secret mission, and Keith erects a sign labelled “Privet” (“private” misspelled) at the entrance of their concealed hangout. What is a plot? For the reader, it is the discovery of concealed connections between events in a narrative. Michael Frayn's Spies is a novel with a carefully engineered plot, and a story whose two main characters are determined to uncover the sinister logic of apparently ordinary events. They are themselves looking for a plot.It is an odd, original, haunting little tale in which the teller is the really interesting thing. (...) But the book's real merit lies in the way Stephen comes to understand the truth behind the mysteries of his world by beginning to understand something about the difference between men and women. This is achieved entirely without crudity. (...) (A) modest but memorable book." - Robert Nye, The Times