This is part of a document we have obtained. It purports to be the first chapter of the original Alchemist's Apprentice manuscript. Below is a photograph of the man who, it is claimed, wrote it. So far so groovy. But is Jeremy Dronfield in fact the author of the book? There is doubt. More than this, the story told in the book seems to suggest that the true author of the three previous novels which have appeared under the name of Jeremy Dronfield were in fact written by a man called Roderick Bent, the allegedly 'fictitious' narrator of The Alchemist's Apprentice, in which Jeremy appears as a character. Confused? You will be.

I began my quest for the truth by speaking to Jeremy himself. To my complete non-surprise, he wasn't very forthcoming. "It's a novel," he said, and quickly grew irritable. "Don't you people have any grasp of the nature of fiction?" Now, to my mind, people only get that defensive when they've got something to hide.

The manuscript was the next piece of evidence in the chain. I'm no handwriting expert, but this is obviously Jeremy's own work. But that's not the point - the point is that it doesn't prove he made up the words. Does it? Unless there was some method of dating paper and ink to find out if it was written before 1997, the manuscript isn't admissible evidence. I decided to talk to the publisher, Headline.

The person responsible for editing all four of Jeremy's novels (the first of which, The Locust Farm, came out in 1998) is Bill Massey, who no longer works for Headline. My ears pricked up when I heard this - and I got really alert when I was told that he left the company just before The Alchemist's Apprentice was published. I tracked Massey to New York, where he now works for an American publisher. He allayed my fears somewhat by seeming happy to talk to me, although he couldn't shed much light on the issue of Jeremy's authorship. (The only flash of irritation I experienced was when I asked if his departure from Headline had any connection with the Alchemist episode. He denied it emphatically.) Over a four-year period from 1997, he met Jeremy on numerous occasions, and it never occurred to Massey to doubt that this man was the author of the manuscripts he edited. He had certainly never heard of either Roderick Bent or Madagascar Rhodes.

Having spoken to everyone at Headline willing to talk - and to Dronfield's agent, the dynamic Jonny Geller - I seemed to be no further forward than when I started. I decided to go back to the start and put together all the evidence I could find. At Skite's suggestion, I also set out my hypothesis more clearly.

The Alchemist's Apprentice tells us that Roderick Bent, Jeremy's closest friend, wrote this book (I'm loath to use the word 'novel'), plus about forty other novels and short stories, including the three books which have recently appeared under Jeremy's name. In addition - crucially - Bent penned the mid-1990's mega-seller also entitled The Alchemist's Apprentice. On New Year's Eve 1996 he disappeared. Not only did he erase himself from history, he also wiped out all evidence and memory of his bestselling book. Now, we can probably (I hope) take this as a fantastical web of invention. But I contend that the idea must have come from somewhere. My hypothesis is that a person called Roderick Bent (or Madagascar Rhodes - who can tell which is the 'real' pseudonym?) wrote the book, and its predecessors, and that Jeremy is a front behind which he is hiding. After all, why use a nom de plume when an homme de plume assures much greater anonymity? Pushing all my journalistic skills to the limit in pursuit of this line of inquiry, I hit problems almost immediately. All my attempts to locate a Roderick Bent who resembled the character in the book drew a blank. If he exists, he is incredibly well hidden (Bin Laden - I could pinpoint him tomorrow, but Roderick Bent is quite impossible). Back to the drawing board. I still had two pieces of evidence to examine. Jeremy's career, and the manuscript.

Examining the manuscript closely, I noticed that it was written on the back of a set of page-proofs of 'Burning Blue', Jeremy's third novel. This proved that it must have been written after that novel had entered the publication process, and not before (as The Alchemist's Apprentice claims). Also, a handwriting expert (Dr Adrian Toadel of De Montfort University) testifies that the manuscript shows evidence of disjunction and other signs consistent with having been written ad lib. In other words, Jeremy wasn't copying out an already extant text verbatim. This suggests that Jeremy Dronfield really is the author of this manuscript and of his other novels, and that Roderick Bent is an invention. However, things are rarely that simple ...

Jeremy Dronfield's career since leaving school in 1982 can be traced with ease. Except for two short periods of unemployment, he was pretty much continually occupied up to mid-1997. Most of the period isn't worth looking at, since internal evidence shows that the books were written after c.1992. After this time, Jeremy worked (as The Alchemist's Apprentice relates with verifiable truth) extremely hard to build up an academic career in Archaeology, researching, travelling, writing and teaching. There is no conceivable way, prior to early 1997 when he began to drift away from the academic life, that he could have written any substantial works of fiction. The fact that the manuscript of The Locust Farm was accepted for publication in the late spring of 1997 doesn't prove that he didn't write it, but there must surely be some doubt. And take the quick succession with which the three subsequent novels have appeared - one a year from 1998 onwards. These aren't slim novellas or pulpy airport fodder - they're sizeable books jam-packed with imaginative ideas. Neither I nor anyone I've spoken to can imagine even the most workaholic writer having produced so much in such a short time. And, for the reasons I've already given, they can't be 'bottom drawer' books, written and stockpiled over a long period. To my mind, the only remaining alternative explanation is, God forbid ...

... that The Alchemist's Apprentice is a true story.

Read it, and make up your own mind. It seems we'll never know for sure whether Jeremy Dronfield is a workaholic genius, a front for a workaholic genius, or an out-and-out charlatan. If you can cast any light on the issue of where these books really came from, I'd be made up to hear from you.

Sal.