Lori Inglis Hall’s debut novel, The Shock of the Light, opens in England with the birth of twins, Theo and Tessa. Theo arrives first, writhing and screaming until reunited with his sister in their crib. The children grow up sharing an attachment so deep that they’re attuned to one another’s every thought and desire. Their French mother and English father are often frustrated by their close relationship. Their mother tells a friend what a doctor remarked about the pair:

“Twins only feel they need each other, that’s what he said. How nice it must be to have a little world that is just yours. We do feel so grateful when they allow us inside.”

As they grow, they remain inseparable until Tessa, increasingly frustrated by the things she’s forbidden to do because she’s a girl, enrolls at the Sorbonne to pursue a degree denied to her in the U.K. Theo, off to Cambridge to study law, is hurt by her decision. She seems distant upon her return from Paris, and he suspects she’s keeping something from him.

Soon enough, World War II breaks out, and the twins are forced apart once more when Theo enlists in the Royal Air Force. Tessa is determined to do her bit and volunteers to work as a driver in France. However, largely due to a family friend who works for some mysterious governmental department, she is instead put forward to work for the Special Operations Executive in France. This is dangerous business that involves communicating with the Resistance, passing information back to London, and performing acts of sabotage.

Theo, badly wounded at Normandy, returns home devastated by the loss of so many fellow pilots. Sadly, Tessa does not return, and Theo is horrified to hear what she’s been doing. He feels betrayed by her keeping such a secret from him and tries desperately to find her, to no avail. The officials responsible for Special Operations don’t want it known that they’d sent young women — many of whom didn’t survive — into harm’s way and so are less than helpful. Following the Nazis’ retreat, Theo travels to Paris to look for clues as to Tessa’s whereabouts and finds the city in an altered state:

“In Paris, some wounds are more obvious than others — the battle scars, the bullet holes — but it is the lowered eyes that draw Theo’s attention. Women in their bright, smart clothes, the sheer defiance of looking good when everything around them has fallen apart. Folks cooking on charcoal on balconies because the electricity supply is unreliable, and nonexistent for many.”

He witnesses two girls, probably still in their teens, weeping while their heads are shaved. Each has a small suitcase beside her. An older woman steps forward from the crowd and spits in their faces. “They are just kids,” Theo laments. “They are lucky,” a friend replies. “Males accused of collaboration are shot.”

Theo perseveres in his search and learns that Tessa was detained by the Gestapo in Paris; he doesn’t know where she was taken from there. The French government, now led by returned hero Charles de Gaulle, isn’t cooperative when it comes to sharing information that might reflect badly on their countrymen. Unable to trace his beloved twin, Theo returns to England a broken man. Later, he is sent to Nuremberg to interview German prisoners and ascertain who will stand trial for war crimes. A colleague, Jeremy, observes that the inmates are “fascinatingly banal creatures, given what they’ve done.”

Eventually, Theo changes careers to teach at Cambridge while living in his childhood home. Jeremy is now his lover. Theo’s father, brokenhearted by Tessa’s disappearance, has died, and his distraught mother has retired to France. Jeremy works for the British government and only visits Theo on weekends to uphold the façade that they’re merely friends. (Homosexuality is still illegal in Britain.) Tessa always lingers at the edge of Theo’s mind as he relives scenes from their childhood in the old house.

Decades later, a Ph.D. candidate named Edie, deep into her research on the Special Operations Executive in WWII, tracks Theo down in London. Together, they find newly available information about England’s wartime spies, including the fact that there’d likely been a traitor in their midst. As Edie and Theo dig deeper, they finally uncover the truth about Tessa’s actions — the seeds of which were planted the summer she spent in France before the outbreak of war. 

Compellingly presented and beautifully written, The Shock of the Light is a story of heroism, the barbaric toll of war, and the unbreakable bond of twins. It mines the uplifting spirit of love and redemption that can arise amid extreme circumstances. This meticulously researched book is at once informative and engaging. Theo and Tessa will linger in the reader’s memory long after the last page has been turned.

D.A. Spruzen is the author of the Sleuthing with Mortals series and the forthcoming Flower Ladies trilogy. She teaches creative writing in Northern Virginia.