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Anthony Horowitz has been assigned to write the latest of the 007 continuation novels – but this one is based on a plot by Bond creator Ian Fleming himself.

Fleming created various storylines for a proposed James Bond TV series during the 1950s, and when this came to nothing, used some of them for his short story collections. However, Murder on Wheels was not written up, and this will form the basis for Horowitz’s currently untitled book.

The story was set at the Nurburgring in Germany with the Russians (presumably SMERSH) trying to cause real life British racing driver Stirling Moss to crash. “It’s such a good idea. Ian loved cars and driving – he was friends with Stirling Moss, the Lewis Hamilton of the time,” Fleming’s niece, Lucy Fleming, explained. “Bond’s mission is to make sure a Russian plot to scupper Moss’s race by forcing him to crash is intercepted … there’s a fantastic race Bond gets involved in.”

“It’s no secret that Ian Fleming’s extraordinary character has had a profound influence on my life, so when the estate approached me to write a new James Bond novel how could I possibly refuse?” added Horowitz. “It’s a huge challenge – more difficult even than Sherlock Holmes in some ways – but having original, unpublished material by Fleming has been an inspiration. This is a book I had to write.”

Fleming’s grand-niece, Jessie Grimond noted: “There are a few plot outlines which [Fleming] never used and which, till now, have never been published, or aired. Given that Anthony is as brilliant a screenwriter as he is a novelist, we thought it would be exciting to see what he would do with one of them.”

Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Samantha Weinberg, Sebastian Faulkes, Jeffrey Deaver and William Boyd have all added official stories to the Bond canon, while Charlie Higson and Steve Cole have chronicled the agent’s younger years in the Young Bond novels, the next of which, Shoot to Kill, is due out shortly.

With this novel Horowitz, famed as the creator of young spy Alex Rider, becomes the only person to have written for both James Bond and Leslie Charteris’ character, Simon Templar. His novel, currently known only as Project One, will be published on 8 September 2015.