When one looks back upon one’s time on Earth – across the span of years and decisions that have carried one from birth to wherever one is now – it is nigh impossible to point out a single particular moment and say, ‘Yes, here. This is where it all began to go wrong.’ But still one tries.'

Baroness Sylvie Deveraux receives a house call from her disowned sister Charlotte. In fear that her past as a spirit medium has caught up with her, Sylvie decides to join her sister on one last con.

This was a dark, atmospheric read. I did find Sylvie a bit irritating and just really wanted to be listening to Charlotte, which to my suprise came in part two, and from then on, I absolutely loved the book. Mimi was such a great addition to the book I wished we'd seen a bit more from him. I thought the way the book ended was right, and it changed the way I thought about Sylvie.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers @randomhouse @doubledaybooks for the digital copy.

I believe this is the author's debut novel. Spitting Gold is set in 19th century Paris where sisters Sylvie and Charlotte have a history of working as spirit mediums. Now Sylvie is married to a Baron and has put this seedy part of her life behind her. Then Charlotte appears and persuades her to help in one more charade.

I enjoyed the first part of the book written from Sylvie's point of view. The characters were mostly unlikeable but they were strong and the setting was realistic. However there was something wrong, for me at least, in the second half of the book when Charlotte's version took over. I found my mind wandering as I read. I also thought the whole tale was predictable and the prologue should definitely have been omitted.

Nevertheless many people are loving this book. For me it was just okay.

An excellent historical fiction set in Paris in XIX mixing mystery, fiction. Entertaining and well plotted.
I enjoyed the story and liked the well developed characters
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In the shadowed alleys of 1866 Paris, Baroness Sylvie Devereux, ensnared in her opulent manor, hesitantly agrees to a house call from her estranged sister, Charlotte Mothe, despite lingering fears of her tainted past as a spirit medium.

With their father ailing and bills looming, the sisters contemplate one last con to secure their future.

Their target: the dysfunctional de Jacquinot family, haunted by the spectre of their murdered great-aunt from the French Revolution. As they delve deeper into the deception, Sylvie and Charlotte confront eerie phenomena firsthand, leading them to question reality and unearth long-buried secrets.

As the line between truth and illusion blurs, the sisters must confront their pasts and decipher who among them speaks truth or deception. With its intoxicating blend of gothic ambience and sapphic intrigue, Spitting Gold offers a compulsively addictive journey into the dark heart of the Parisian mystery.

If you enjoy the following, you will love this book!

⟡ complex family dynamics

⟡ gothic mystery

⟡ 19th century Paris

⟡ sapphic romance

Thank you so much to the author - Carmella Lowkis as well as the team at Double Day Books for posting me a copy of the book!

4.5 stars This entertaining gothic read had me gripped from the very start, with the intriguingly background of Sylvie and Charlotte enough to pull me in and keep reading.
I loved how we learnt little snippets of their relationship and history as we moved deeper into the story, and I felt the two point of views given showed a clever twist to the events as they unfolded. The sisters relationship was a complex one and I felt that we got to see both their views on the family and the situation they found themselves in.
The atmospheric writing and descriptions of Paris in the late 19th century were so evocative and captured the mood and use of spiritualism of the time brilliantly.
A clever and enjoyable debut I absorbed completely.

What a very enjoyable read. A dark gothic sapphic mystery set in Paris in 1866 centred around estranged spiritualist sisters Baroness Sylvie Devereux and Charlotte Mothe. Told in two parts, both in the first person, the first from Sylvie’s perspective and the second from Charlottes. I read this in one sitting. The short one page prologue dated 15 July 1866 was enough to grab my attention and that was it as the book moved back to 3 April 1866… I was hooked.

Briefly, Charlotte is struggling to pay their fathers medical bills so goes cap in hand to Sylvie to ask her to take part in one final con. The plan is to frighten the aristocratic de Jacquinots family who are haunted by a relative killed during the French Revolution into paying them massive sums in gold. But everything does not go to plan and the sisters begin to believe that there really are spirits at play and they aren’t playing nice.

Beautifully and atmospherically written you can almost imagine yourself walking the streets of 19th century Paris. There is a very emotional thread alongside the main storyline that was really quite unsettling. The plot itself is clever and twisty and I thought the characters were well fleshed. Very entertaining book. 4.5⭐️

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Mothe sisters are well-renowned in the world of Spiritualists but, are they all that they claim to be? I loved the interweaving of folklore tales about the good sister and the bad sister. There were a few twists in this book which I enjoyed but, also wondered about the likelihood of some of the twists. A very enjoyable read that I couldn't put down.

A story of sisterhood, spiritism, and deception, Spitting Gold is a haunting yet entertaining tale of Sylvie and Charlotte Mothe, two sisters who live very different lives. Sylvie has left the profession of being a spiritualist at her husbands insistence. As a Baron, he's able to provide for her in ways that she can only imagine. When her sister Charlotte, who's been left behind, caring for their drunken and often abusive father, finds Sylvie, she asks for her help one last time. One last con.
Told from the Pov of both sisters in separate parts of the book, I found both characters quite intriguing. I did prefer Charlotte's pov, but I think that's because I enjoyed the sapphic love interest of Florence more.
Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. Whilst I did enjoy the setting of Paris, the plot often dragged, and there were parts that felt quite silly and ridiculous. There's plenty of twists and turns, though, which I enjoyed, and there's plenty of drama and suspense. It's not a bad book by any means, but I did struggle with the pacing of this one. It just seemed very long. I enjoyed the ending, though, and found it satisfying. I think fans of gothic, slow burn historical fiction will enjoy this one.

This was an entertaining and slightly different take on spiritualist shenanigans in mid 19th century Paris. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Paris, late nineteenth century. Enstranged sisters Charlotte and Sylvie find their way back to each other when their ill father needs care. Before long the sisters are caught up in a spiritist scam to make money from a family secret.. But in this story nothing is what it seems.
Spitting Gold is a sweet and gentle mystery in a historical setting. Good for a cosy afternoon or evening.

Deliciously dark and clever with a twisty gothic plot. An enjoyable sapphic romp with a haunting mystery at it's heart. Very much enjoyed.

I so enjoyed 'Spitting Gold', a novel that ticks all my gothic/historical/sapphic boxes! I found the storyline to be reminiscent of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith, with the novel constructed in two parts, following two different viewpoints. Each part is told by a sister - Sylvie and Charlotte, estranged but brought back together to undertake a spiritualist con. The plot is clever, twisty, and kept me turning the pages to the very end. I particularly liked the character of Mimi, a man who refuses to follow convention and goes his own way. Lowkis has brought to life the stultifying conditions that women lived in during the 18oos, and she has succeeded in conjuring vivid characters in Charlotte and Sylvie and Florence, This novel is full of hauntings and dark secrets, hidden passions and sisterly love. A deliciously dark and dangerous historical debut,

Great fun, a dark and twisty tale of spirits and things that are not what they seem. Really enjoyed the telling.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story, set in the 19th Century. Full of excitement including two sisters working as spirit mediums, contacting the spirits from the other side or not? The sisters’ characters came over as very different with one having married well and the other still at home and single.
We get to hear about life as it was in that early time and are also reminded of the practice in those days of people attending a public viewing platform that looked into a public mortuary. This, in the hope of identifying missing loved ones amongst the bloated and disfigured bodies dragged out of the Seine. A morbid practice but gives us a real feel for the horrors of life in the 19th Century.
I was really surprised by the ‘reveal’ in part 2 and felt this was very cleverly written. It brought everything together to show us how this story transpired and also gave us an excellent ending. Not one I was expecting but it was good and everyone involved received what they deserved for their part in the story.
Well worth reading.

I enjoyed #SpittingGold in one sitting as I was thoroughly drawn into this gothic tale. Set in Paris, 1866, two sisters reunite. One is a wealthy Baroness, the other poor and eager to join forces to pay for their dying father’s medical bills.

The plan is to resurrect their previous double act and conduct seances for a rich family who claim to be haunted. One last con, as the cover states, or is it

Thanks to NetGalley for my free advance copy of this book in return for my unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a very entertaining twist on the Victorian spirit hunting trope. It features two estranged sisters who start off conning folks for money but it does not work out that way. Well written.

This is a great historical fiction novel. I loved the dark story, the ghostly goings on and the family relationships particularly between Sylvie and Charlotte as for who is the good and who is the bad sister that is up to you to decide. The story is really cleverly woven together and the story keeps giving right until the end. There is something quite magical and special about the writing of this story and I am really looking forward to reading more by this author.

A fantastic debut novel for Carmella. I really enjoyed this one. Two estranged sisters- proficient in convincing people they can actually summon spirits are brought back together for one last job…

But at what cost?

A brilliant novel, fabulous characters, twists and turns, and just a great read.

My thanks to Netgalley and Transworld, Penguin Random House for inviting me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked so quickly on this story and managed to read half of it in a day as I couldn't put it down. It is a haunting mystery that draws you in quickly. Even when a big part of the story is revealed, the atmosphere was still dark and mysterious, and I still needed to know exactly what had happened as quickly as possible.

I did find the switch to a second POV quite jarring and there was no explanation that it had happened so took me some time to work out what was happening. Just a note at the start of the chapter or splitting the book into part one and part two would help make this easier to deal with and make it more obvious that the voice was changing.

The insider info provided about how spiritualists faked hauntings and seances was fascinating and added another dimension. Despite all of these tidbits and details, I was still convinced there was a real haunting at one point because Lowkis paints such a detailed and spooky picture.

The story isn't exactly what I was expecting and I think the book is better for it. It has several twists and turns, so just as you think you've worked it out, something else comes along. There are smaller mysteries surrounding the larger one too, so the whole read is spent trying to tie up loose threads - which are all explained well before the end.

If you like gothic, slightly creepy reads with a sapphic angle, this is definitely the book for you.

This book was captivating, mysterious and intriguing—everything I love about a mystery/gothic book! The gothic elements were spot on in this book and made it so atmospheric that it constantly felt like I was there with the characters. I know a story is well written when characters can evoke a sense of annoyance, concern and excitement when I read it.
Also, the ending? Spectacular!
I have so many theories on some of the things that have still been left unsolved for the reader, especially regarding our main characters' mother.
Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday and NetGalley for sending me an ARC for my honest review!