Three Sevens: A Detective Story

San Pedro Prison keeps its punishment cells in a dark subcellar: six boiler-iron boxes, each about five feet on a side, with a door that stays shut until a man's time is up or he dies. The last occupant of Craig's cell was Chi Slim, one of the most famous crooks in the United States, who died there untamed. Craig has ten years still to serve. Then a cat walks in.

Seven tiny steel saws, a dead man's legacy and a break for open country turn his confinement into something much larger: a conspiracy of loyalty, danger and hidden motives. Perley Poore Sheehan's fast-moving detective story starts inside the box and runs, from there, at the pace of a pursuit.