HarperCollins began offering e-book editions of Agatha Christie titles through its PerfectBound e-book imprint last week. HC has the e-book rights to 85 Christie works.

PerfectBound has already released five titles, among them The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie's first novel and first Poirot mystery; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, considered Christie's masterpiece; The Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple mystery; and They Came to Baghdad, a spy thriller set in the Iraqi capital. PerfectBound will release five to six titles every six weeks.

Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HC, said PerfectBound will publish Christie's classics with special features "to attract first-time readers and delight those who return to Christie again and again. There can be no stronger signal of the future of e-books than Chorion's [Christie's management company] commitment of its most important author to this major project."