McCracken, Elizabeth
From the day she is discovered unconscious in a New England cemetery at the turn of the twentieth century—nothing but a bowling ball
a candlepin
and fifteen pounds of gold on her person—Bertha Truitt is an enigma to everyone in Salford
Massachusetts. She has no past to speak of
or at least none she is willing to reveal
and her mysterious origin scandalizes and intrigues the townspeople
as does her choice to marry and start a family with Leviticus Sprague
the doctor who revived her. But Bertha is plucky
tenacious
and entrepreneurial
and the bowling alley she opens quickly becomes Salford’s most defining landmark—with Bertha its most notable resident. When Bertha dies in a freak accident
her past resurfaces in the form of a heretofore-unheard-of son
who arrives in Salford claiming he is heir apparent to Truitt Alleys. Soon it becomes clear that
even in her death
Bertha’s defining spirit and the implications of her obfuscations live on
infecting and affecting future generations through inheritance battles
murky paternities
and hidden wills.