51%
by Matt Witten
DETAILS:
Publisher: Level Best Books
Publication Date: April 28, 2026
Format: eARC
Length: 370 pg.
Read Date: May 4-5, 2026
What’s 51% About?
NYPD, Inc. detective Juke O’Keefe is assigned the case of a woman who was the victim of a murder and left in the street. He wants to find the killer. His partner, a crime marketing consultant, Haylee Navarro, isn’t so sure it’s the right case to take. If for no other reason, she doesn’t think they’ll be able to get much money for the investigation, and given the state of the victim, there are probably not many people who will care that much about finding the killer. Particularly when they find a chip embedded in her, signifying that she’s 51% owned by the syndicates.
If almost every word in that paragraph seems wrong, that just means you’re paying attention. Also, welcome to the dystopia depicted in this book.
Juke’s investigation (because Haylee’s just not that convincing compared to the uncompromising standards he holds himself to) brings the pair into contact with the upper echelons of NYC’s economy, to the poorest corners, working against an AI, and even across the path of a resistance movement on the verge of a significant move.
The Worldbuilding
It’s just exquisite. You could easily just read this for the worldbuilding alone, paying no attention to the plot or characters (outside of how both reveal the world). I remember early cyberpunk being defined as being fifteen minutes in the future—assuming I remember that correctly, Witten has set this novel 7 minutes into the future.
Gen Delta’s sensibilities rule (informally) societal mores, almost(?) everything that is government-provided for us has been privatized, and corporate syndicates “own” percentages of people indebted to them. If you need medical care, go to college, etc. you need to take out a loan which represents a certain percentage of you. If you’re a police officer wanting to investigate a crime, you essentially need to crowd-fund the money necessary for forensics and the investigation. So each detective is partnered not with another detective, but a PR agent who will shoot and promote videos about your case to capture the attention and emotions of viewers to raise that money.
Witten does a great job of explaining this process better than I just did in a non-infodump way.
From the slang to the tech to the finances and beyond—this world feels real, lived in, like a nigh-inevitiable future we’re heading toward.
Why did I pick this up? Why did I keep reading?
When Witten sent me the description, I was hooked. Particularly in his hands—I just didn’t see how it couldn’t be good.
I kept reading because the execution lived up to the premise—the worldbuilding was great, and the story was just as good. You read just a little bit of this, and you’re going to need to keep going.
What does this book tell us about humanity?
I’m not sure that I have a good answer to this. There’s a lot of ugliness in the book—both corporately and individually. But the one thing that came up time and time again is people realizing how they’ve messed up (in big and small ways), and resolving to try to make a difference to make things better for others. Some do this in little ways—just feeding neighborhood cats. Others put their future at risk to protect an innocent person from wrongful arrest. Things like that. There’s just enough of that to keep you from utter despair as you walk through this world.
Or maybe the message is that Canada is the place to go in North America—as it has been for decades.
So, what did I think about 51%?
At its core, 51% is a murder mystery—yes, there’s a lot of futurism noise, political and social commentary, and the rest. But Juke’s hunt for a killer, the red herrings, the leads that don’t work out, and the race against other factors to make sure the right person is arrested—that’s the focus. And, as Jacked and Killer Story have capably demonstrated that Witten knows his way around a crime thriller.
I think the characters—even those on the side of the syndicates that own people—are well-written and complex (although there are some that are little more than stereotypes, but they’re well executed representatives of the type, so it’s hard to complain about them). There are no wholly straightforward motives; everyone has some shading about them.
The reveal of the murderer was well done, and the way the storylines are resolved is very satisfying.
I had a real blast with this one. I really relished the experience of being in the world and watching Juke’s crusade and Haylee getting pulled along in his wake (but also really not doing that). 51% is the kind of book that makes me wish I had a bigger audience so I could tell more people about it. Go read this thing, you’ll be glad you did.
Disclaimer: I received this eARC from the author in exchange for this post, which contains my honest opinion—which worked out well for both of us, I think.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
