I think so. It's interesting to see a character evolve over the years and grow with the passing time. Tommy and Tuppence also have, it could be said, more rounded lives as they marry and have children and devote much of their lives to 'normal' activites instead of spending their lives just solving cases. I think this brings a very human aspect into the way they both think when they are involved in a case.

Where they are in their lives fits very well into each case they undertake. In The Secret Adversary they are young and energetic and eager for adventure; it captures the time just after the 1st world war well. Both have come through some very difficult times and are ready to be involved in something which will be life-affirming. They don't wallow in any deep thinking or moralising, its all just gung ho.

In N or M they have matured, bought up a family and, this time, are well aware of the horror a war can bring. Still very, very eager to do what they can to help, they also now understand how much there is for all to lose. No longer are the lines between good and bad clearly drawn - they are imaginative and can see both sides. I think this brings a depth to N or M that would not have been there had the characters not developed as we all do.

I have to agree with you, Puffinjill.  N or M? was very good.  We saw Tommy and Tuppence at their best, and A.C. was very good with her pen and typewriter.  I like the way she aged them, letting the readers in on some of their personal lives as well as their detection lives.

But she always kept the emphasis on the plot and not on their personal lives. Its tantalising having these glimpses into their married life and their relationships with their children but AC restrains herself from concentrating on these details. If she had, the Tommy and Tuppence books (the later ones especially) would have degenerated into family sagas rather than being driven by the plot. Sometimes I find this frustrating as I would love to have had more books featuring them and would like to know more about them all but perhaps I'm just nosey!! For example, they adopt Betty at the close of N or M but then she is barely referred to in the later books. I would quite liked to have seen how AC would have written about her as a young woman. Alas, all my questions are unanswerable now but, at least I still treasure what AC did give us.

Also, I wounder if AC was able to write about Tommy and Tuppence ageing with confidence because she herself was just about their contempary in age. She wrote about both Poirot and Marple as much older people than herself, but I feel she was able to put her own experience of maturing into T and T, especially Tuppence. Her personal insight makes them very real to her readers.

I agree, Puffin, If it wasn't for the fact that I am sure Tommy and Tuppenceere Created before her and Max goyt together I would wonder if she based Tommy and Tuppence on her and Max, as she accompanied Max with his work and Tommy and Tuppence worked together and also like you said Puffin, Tommy and Tuppence aged like Agatha and Max would have done.