Alex Hogg knows that he will drown on December 30th 2016. As the day of doom approaches, he makes a number of fascinating discoveries. On December 30th 1816, Percy Bysshe Shelley married Mary Godwin, the author of Frankenstein, and on December 30th 1916 the Mad Monk, Rasputin, was murdered in the Moika Palace, St Petersburg. How do these apparently unconnected events link to Alex's prospective drowning and is there anything he can do to avert his fate?

Part-comedy, part-mystery, part-history, part-crossword puzzle, Drowned Hogg Day will keep its readers on tenterhooks from first page to last. By way of a bonus, four one-act plays are included, each set on 30/12/**16.

Nick Smith is the author of Bridge Literature and winner of the 2014 Oxfordshire Drama Network's Playwriting Prize. Drowned Hogg Day is his first novel.