The Book Prize Index

Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature's Bounty

Craig Welch

A unique blend of natural history and crime drama, Shell Games by Craig Welch is a riveting tale of rogues, scoundrels, and the hunt for nature’s bounty in the tradition of The Orchid Thief. A stranger-than-fiction true story centered around a larger-than-life character who pursued a larger-than-life clam—the Geoduck—and then led wildlife police on a two-year-long chase, Shell Games is enthralling and remarkable from page one on.

Nature & EnvironmentNature & Environment · high confidenceNature & Environment81 signalsLlm Classifier: Nature & Environment -> Nature & EnvironmentGoogle Books: Nature -> Nature & EnvironmentAward Category: Rachel Carson Environment Book Award -> Nature & EnvironmentNatural History & AnimalsCrime, Policing & ViolenceEnvironment, Conservation & Pollution

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Rachel Carson Environment Book Award2011WinnerOfficial source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 40%.