http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/14/ ... RISTIE.php

Christie's whodunits, which have sold two billion copies, have been adapted into films, television series, plays and even computer games. But she and her heirs have always viewed another kind of adaptation with suspicion, refusing to allow her novels to be abridged.
Until now, that is.
Thirty-two years after Christie's death, the first shortened version of one of the English writer's mysteries appeared this spring - an 88-page "Death on the Nile." It was published as part of the Penguin Readers series, which is intended for students of English as a second language and young readers.