FLIP SIDE: A novel of suspense

When the most interesting thing about a new mystery is its gimmicky format, you know you're in trouble. The first half of the book presents the prosecution's take on a high-profile Hollywood murder case. You must flip the book over to read the defense's version--but by that time, you're likely to be too bored or annoyed to bother. Gardner's two-sided tale begins when hugely overweight movie star Devon Orlando is charged with knifing his soon-to-be-ex wife and her boyfriend. Orlando received an Oscar for a movie in which ""he pranced around in his undershirt, flexing his muscles. Before the demons of fat conquered his body. He hadn't gone to the ceremony to pick up the award himself, sending instead a comely Hispanic woman who harangued the assembled gadflies for not treating minorities better in film."" Added to this derivative blend of thinly veiled real-life Hollywood episodes are a crooked cop who plants fake blood evidence, a dowdy, divorced female prosecutor who suddenly blossoms as a sex symbol and a sleazy defense lawyer whose description offers an example of Gardner's prose: ""It didn't take Lyle Dewhurst long to slither from the rock to the hard place. And it was all as natural as taking candy from a sleeping baby."" The author, a California-based columnist, has gotten creditable notices for The Paper Dynasty and The Real Sleeper, but this awkward exercise in flipping flops. (Aug.)