Author of best-selling drug memoir accused of telling tales

In his best-selling memoir, the writer James Frey documents in gut-wrenching detail his struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, the three months he spent in jail and the suicide of a close friend. The stark prose of A Million Little Pieces earned it an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey that sent its sales to more than two million copies in 2005; last year only Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling sold more in the US.

Since then Frey has become something of a literary "It" figure, fêted by the critics and a regular in the New York celebrity columns. He is anticipating a film; the rights having been optioned by Gus Van Sant, who directed Good Will Hunting.

Frey's follow-up memoir,My Friend Leonard, is also topping sales lists. But now he is at the centre of a mounting controversy after it was alleged he may have been writing fiction rather than fact. An inquiry by an investigative website has suggested that crucial portions of his memoir were invented or embellished.

William Bastone, the editor of thesmokinggun.com website, said: "His book has a lot of stuff in it - events and characters - that seemed implausible. We decided to focus on those events where we thought there should be a paper trail - court documents, law enforcement documents. What we discovered significantly calls into question things he has repeatedly claimed are [an] accurate and truthful ... rendition of events."

Frey's memoir was published in 2003. Last September, a paperback edition was selected by Winfrey when she reintroduced her book club, suspended for a couple of years. Such endorsement routinely sends a book's sales rocketing, and Frey's memoir quickly become Amazon's bestseller. Her show that week was titled "The man who kept Oprah awake at night".

"I was a bad guy," Frey told Winfrey. "If I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways." The investigation by the website said numerous aspects of the memoir were inaccurate, including the three months Frey claimed to have spent in jail.

Using court and police records, the website suggested that at best, Frey spent a day or so in jail following a drink-drive incident.

Frey's book has never carried a disclaimer to say it is anything other than factual. In a 2003 interview with the Cleveland-based Plain Dealer newspaper, he said his publishers had "contacted the people I wrote about". He added: "All the events depicted in the book checked out as factually accurate. I changed people's names ... The only things I changed were aspects of people that might reveal their identity. Otherwise, it's all true." But when Frey was contacted by the website he admitted events "were embellished in the book for obvious reasons".

On bigjimindustries.com, Frey's own website, he described the investigation as "the latest attempt to discredit me".

"So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my life, and I won't dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response," Frey wrote.

In a statement, his publishers Doubleday, an imprint of Random House, said: "We stand in support of our author ... and his book which has touched the lives of millions of readers."

His lawyer, who threatened to sue thesmokinggun.com if it published its investigation, was unavailable for comment. Mr Bastone is prepared to defend himself and the investigation. In a letter published on Frey's website, he said: "Since you are now threatening legal action against us (and citing possible recoverable damages in the 'range of millions of dollars') and questioning the accuracy, thoroughness, and fairness of our reporting, you should know that we are prepared to vigorously defend our work."

Opinion among readers is divided. On one online forum some defended Frey and said the book had changed their lives. Another wrote: "He should have written 'I'm an Alcoholic, I'm an Addict, I'm a Criminal, and I'm a Liar'."

Some aspects of Frey's memoir have raised reviewers' suspicions. A 2003 review for The Independent concluded: "Such episodes as Frey's affair with Lilly [and] his dramatic rescue of her from a crack house... could be pre-written for the screen. They may be true, but they seem varnished to the point of fairy tale."