Talia Marby is excited about her new business, Fry Me a Sliver, and is eager to participate in the yearly Santa fundraiser for the community. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm is soon diminished when she sees the neighboring booth will be occupied by Ria Butterforth. Ria appears to dislike Talia and the tension escalates when Talia sees her grandmother's scarf for sale at Ria's booth. Talia isn't the only one who has problems with Ria, however, as Ria winds up dead and now Talia is determined to solve the mystery.

OUT OF THE DYING PAN is the second book in the Deep Fried Mystery series. Talia is just stepping out on her own as the proprietor of the recently renamed Fry Me a Sliver and so OUT OF THE DYING PAN is an easy place to jump into the series. We do briefly see the prior owner, Bea Lambert, and I suspect I would have liked her a bit more if I had met her in the first book, FILLET OF MURDER.

I love Talia and her determination to make Fry Me a Sliver a success! However, I have to admit that it was the cranky Martha Hoelscher who particularly intrigued me. Despite her somewhat irritable personality and her oh-so-stinky scarf, Martha grew on me as we see flashes of another side of her. I don't want to risk any spoilers but I hope we get to see more of the lighter side of Martha in future books!

I'm not typically a fan of deep fried foods but Linda Reilly does a marvelous job at making some unusual combinations sound quite scrumptious! I'm tempted to try making the deep fried marble cake in particular. OUT OF THE DYING PAN is a tasty treat that is sure to whet the appetites of cozy mystery readers!