What did you love best about Without Mercy?
The story was compassionate, but not overly so, for the main subject of the story. Some might argue it spends too much time humanizing her and not the victims, but I think there’s something valuable in getting that humanization – that you can never tell.
What other book might you compare Without Mercy to and why?
It’s hard to find something sufficiently close. All the other true crime books don’t have someone who seemed mostly duped into murder.
Have you listened to any of Kevin Pierce’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
This one is easily as good as the others. It may even be the best one, with the multiple voices being sufficiently distinct.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
The nicest person you meet could hire your killer
Any additional comments?
It’s easy to feel sympathetic towards Dee Casteel, the woman at the center of the story. She almost was disconnected from it all, believing that since she was part of a conspiracy, she was not as culpable as the originator or the executors of the conspiracy. she didn’t even profit from it. But the fact is, she helped arrange the murders, and ended up on death row.

The book does need an update, based on what I found upon googling her.