A former regional daily journalist has made the top 20 bestseller list with a novel whose main character is a reporter at her old newspaper.

Emily Koch, who was deputy news editor at the Bristol Post, has had her book If I Die Before I Wake published by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The book follows the story of fictional Post journalist Alex, who tries to piece together clues of a mystery which has left him in a coma.

Emily, pictured, was inspired to write the story one day while driving to work at the Post.

She said: “I was driving to work one day, listening to the radio, and there must have been a story about a man in a coma on the news.It got me thinking about his family, his girlfriend – how would his condition affect them?

“That was how the idea for the book first came about, but it changed a lot from that nugget of inspiration to the finished version of the novel.”

Emily added: “I’ve always wanted to write a book, and see it on the shelves. It’s a dream come true to be able to walk into bookshops and find it.

“Even better, people seem to be enjoying it, and the reviews so far have been better than I could have hoped for.”

The book is currently stands at number 4 in Amazon’s fiction chart and number 1 in the crime thriller category.