We present in this work a study of tree-dominated charmless three-body decays of B mesons, B − → K þ K − π − and B − → π þ π − π − , within the factorization approach. The main results are: (i) There are two distinct sources of nonresonant contributions: one arises from the b → u tree transition and the other from the nonresonant matrix element of scalar densities hM 1 M 2 jq 1 q 2 j0i NR. It turns out that even for treedominated three-body decays, dominant nonresonant contributions originate from the penguin diagram rather than from the b → u tree process, as implied by the large nonresonant component observed recently in the π − K þ system which accounts for one third of the B − → K þ K − π − rate. (ii) The calculated branching fraction of B − → f 2 ð1270Þπ − → K þ K − π − is smaller than the LHCb by a factor of ∼7 in its central value, but the predicted BðB − → f 2 ð1270Þπ − → π þ π − π − Þ is consistent with the data. Branching fractions of B − → f 2 ð1270Þπ − extracted from the LHCb measurements of these two processes also differ by a factor of seven! Therefore, it is likely that the f 2 ð1270Þ contribution to B − → K þ K − π − is largely overestimated experimentally. Including 1=m b power corrections from penguin annihilation inferred from QCD factorization (QCDF), a sizable CP asymmetry of 25% in the f 2 ð1270Þ component agrees with experiment. (iii) A fraction of 5% for the ρð1450Þ component in B − → π þ π − π − is in accordance with the theoretical expectation. However, a large fraction of 30% in B − → K þ K − π − is entirely unexpected. This issue needs to be clarified in the future. (iv) We study final-state ππ ↔ KK rescattering and find that the rescattering contributions to both B − → K þ K − π − and B − → π þ π − π − seem to be overestimated experimentally by a factor 4. (v) Using the QCDF expression for the B − → σ=f 0 ð500Þπ − amplitude to study the decay B − → σπ − → π þ π − π − , the resultant branching fraction and CP violation of 15% agree with experiment. (vi) CP asymmetry for the dominant quasi-two-body decay mode B − → ρ 0 π − was found by the LHCb to be consistent with zero in all three S-wave models. In the QCDF approach, 1=m b power corrections, namely, penguin annihilation and hard spectator interactions contribute destructively to A CP ðB − → ρ 0 π − Þ to render it consistent with zero. (vii) A significant CP asymmetry has been seen in the ρ 0 ð770Þ region for positive-and negative-helicity angle cosines. Considering the low π þ π − invariant mass region of the B þ → π þ π þ π − Dalitz plot of CP asymmetries divided into four zones, the pattern of CP violation in each zone is well described by the interference between ρð770Þ and σð500Þ as well as the nonresonant background.