It is not often that mystery surrounds the return of a library book.

And at first glance, the return of one on loan from a library in the West Midlands would not seem something to cause a lot of fuss.

The thing is, when the volume - borrowed from Dudley - was handed in, it was to a library 10,500 miles (16,898 km) away in Australia. Talk about one for the books.

The Hive, written by Gill Hornby, was on loan until the end of March and was well within the return deadline when it ended up at Bairnsdale Library in East Gippsland, Victoria. There the novel was handed to librarian Jessica Berry who contacted the team in the UK, but no one yet knows how it ended up down under.

"It's always interesting to see where our books end up but this one was literally on the other side of the world," said Dudley Libraries assistant James Windsor.

"The item originally lived with us at Gornal Library and we've been entertaining some of our regulars with the story of this novel's incredible journey."

The Hive was first published in 2013 and tells the story of a group of mothers at a primary school. It has been described as "a fascinating and subtle story about group politics and female friendship".

"It's clearly a very good read," said Stephanie Rhoden, a manager for Dudley Libraries.

"The book was on loan until the end of March and was therefore returned on time – to a library thousands of miles from ours."

So will the book now be making its way home to Dudley after its holiday?

Not so, says Rhoden.

"We've now withdrawn it from our collection so it can stay where it is.

"East Gippsland is in the far east of Victoria and looks like an amazing place to be."

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