A review by chriskoppenhaver
The Raconteur's Commonplace Book by Kate Milford

5.0

A group of people stranded by flooding together in an inn tell each other stories to pass the time. Each telling reveals something about the teller. Gradually, a puzzle develops as vague connections start to appear--connections from tales to tales, tellers to tellers, and tales to tellers. By the end, a mystery has emerged, one that plays out among the tellers before any of them can leave. Whether you read for the folk tales and legends, the intriguing characters, or the satisfying mystery--or all, of course--you will be thrilled with the storytelling and your newfound, deeper knowledge of Milford's world of Nagspeake, the slightly magical port city setting (in one way or another) for all of her books.

A note from Mildford's website:

First things first: The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book, being a piece of lore that exists independently within the Roaming World (the shared world of all my books so far), you can read it at absolutely at any time. It connects to every other one of the books, but isn’t dependent on any of them. If you haven’t read any of the others yet, The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book is a great place to start, but you can also read it at any point, fitting it in anywhere you like among the others.