Teddy

May 20, 2024
Dunlay impresses with her multilayered character-driven debut about a Texas woman who lands in hot water after she marries a State Department employee at the height of the Cold War. The narrative begins in 1969 Rome, where Teddy Huntley Carlyle Shepard is about to be questioned by investigators for reasons unknown to the reader. From there, Teddy’s story unfurls in flashbacks, starting with her first date with future husband David Shepard earlier in the year, whose unspecified job involves “encouraging economic cooperation” between the U.S. and Europe. David is now in Milan, and the night before the interrogation, Teddy attended a Fourth of July party at the American ambassador’s residence. The dress she wore is stained with blood, and she worries that news of what happened there—the details of which come out much later—will cause an international scandal (“My name will be in everyone’s mouths, crunched and swallowed between the crushed ice and maraschino cherries of their juleps and Manhattans”). Teddy hints at secrets she’s kept from David, including her romance with a Russian named Yevgeny Larin, whom she last saw in 1963, and considers herself a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Early on, Teddy is portrayed as a superficial person, but her hidden depths come to light in the novel’s satisfying climax. This is a winner. Agent: Katie Greenstreet, Paper Literary.