What does 'throw such a novel light over' mean?

Can somebody explain the meaning of the last sentence in the next fragment:

‘Nick had pictured Pete as the fruity kind of antique-dealer, or even as a sexless figure like his own father, with a bow and a trim white beard.
That Pete should be as he was threw such a novel light over Leo‘.

This is from ‘The Line of Beauty’ by Alan Hollinghurst. Nick and Leo are lovers, and ‘old Pete’ is Leo’s ex they visited.

There are some questions:

1. Is the phrase ‘…throw such a novel light over Leo’ equivalent to ‘…shed light upon’?
2. If they are interchangable, for which purpose an adjective ‘novel’ was added? Does it mean ‘to unmask unknown (may be even unattractive’?) facts about Leo?
3. Grammatically, the sentence isn’t quite clear for me. Can you explain, what did the author mean by ‘should be as he was’?

Many thanks!