Fiction Writers are Good Liars

As fiction writers, all our stories are effectively lies. They're not true in themselves, but we have to still get our facts right for them to be believable. (This is even so when writing fantasy, I would dare to suggest.)

It's all about suspending the reader's belief while they're reading your novel.
When I read the first of Frank Westworth's 'Killing Sisters' trilogy, I came out of it into my nice, quiet, safe, non threatening, non violent world almost surprised and relieved that the real world wasn't like Stoner's world. (JJ Stoner, is Westworth's uncompromising protagonist.)

If your novel is set in a real place, time, or way of life, then there has to be real details that in this day and age are easy to verify via Google or similar. Otherwise the real place or lifestyle won't be believed, and neither will the fiction.

We all do it, or at least most of us do, though how many time have you read something that's been set in an environment that you know well? Maybe a sport or hobby, or a place you visit often? A profession that you are familiar with?

And how many times have you found the story to be unsatisfying because the author got the details wrong? I know I have. That's why I make sure that if I don't know something in detail, I research it. If I can't find the accurate detail, I leave it out completely. It's better to just tell the reader that your character went from Knightsbridge to Holborn, than to make the Hollywood movie mistake of showing them passing Buckingham palace on the way, after driving around Wembley Stadium and crossing Tower Bridge to get there. Anyone who knows London, will find it ridiculous.

Infiltrate your story with real facts and accurate descriptions or scenes, then you can drop the fiction into the middle and get it believed. It's what we all do (I hope), so I suppose it's not too dissimilar to infiltrate your factual book with fictions. Some journalists do it all the time.
I guess then that it doesn't take too big a jump to fake the factual book too, as long as there's just enough truth to get away with it.

I did a first edit of a book a little while back, and both myself, and my publisher (who I was doing the job for) were unsure whether it was a memoir or a novel. He asked the author, a Nigerian writer, Yomi Makanjuola, whether it was a true story and he confirmed that it was indeed complete fiction, a novel, (Cascade) yet the book felt like a real person telling his story first hand, and at the same time informing the reader about the way of life of a middle class Nigerian youngster in a nation battling against the odds to become a part of the Western World. (Check the book out, it's worth a read.)