Spies is a 2002 novel by the British author and playwright Michael Frayn. The story takes place during both World War II and the present day, as narrator Stephen Wheatley returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary suburban childhood. Stephen is unsure of what he is actually trying to find and, as he walks once-familiar streets he hasn't seen in 50 years, he unfolds a story of childish games eventually colliding cruelly with adult realities.