The young black man with the calloused hands wants to make a break with his past, a near thirty-year criminal career marked by drugs, violence and shattered lives. Before him is Jack Lawrence, a retired Lockheed Martin Corporation manager who believes in second chances. Neither man suspects that they are together about to embark on a seven-year journey of trust, backsliding, hope, disillusionment -- and ultimately, redemption. Ryker James is the son of a crack dealer in Fort Worth, Texas and the brother of Honey, Fast Buck, and Jimmy-Earl James, drug lords on Bloody Fifth in Houston. Though Ryker spent thirty years of his life dodging shootings, running from the law, and inwardly resisting the life he was born to, he didn’t see a way out -- until now. Months pass, then years. Ryker is Jack’s captive audience, learning everything he can from this seventy-year-old white man. Despite their difference in age, culture, and experience, Ryker learns to trust Jack. And against all odds, Ryker emerges with a new life and renewed hope. You’ll find yourself rooting for him, right alongside Jack, up until the very end, just like you may have cheered for Aibileen, Minny or Skeeter in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help or Michael Ohr in Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side. At 90,000 words, Seventy Times Seven demonstrates the power of seventy years of wisdom and experience, and the value of dogged persistence during the seven years it takes to get Ryker out. Ryker James’ story represents a triumph of the human spirit. Seventy Times Seven is a tour de force that reveals the hopelessness and despair endemic in a hidden America, and the irresistible power of faith and trust.