Acceptable Risk

Acceptable Risk

Robin Cook

Pages: 385, Category: Fiction

Publisher: Berkeley

Robin Cook excels in medical thrillers and ‘Acceptable Risk’ is no exception. In a clever way of mingling history with medicine and reason, Cook keeps the readers continually thrilled until they reach the back cover.

Elizabeth Stewart was hanged in 1692 for witchcraft which was alleged and proved by popular will on unsuspecting victims who don’t tow the official line. The reason for the accusation was the hallucinations visited on her and other children who ate what she prepared. Also, Elizabeth gave birth to a much deformed baby which looked like the devil and was still born. After a brief trial, she was hanged.

Three centuries later, in 1994, one successor of the Stewart family, Kimberley Stewart and her friend Edward suspects some scientific reason behind the whole episode of hallucinations and Edward managed some samples from an old cellar. Subjecting it to a thorough test, he found that there was an alkaloid which stimulates the brain much and heightens overall working of the brain. This was thought to be a panacea for stress, shyness and other personality related problems. He forms a company, hires some experts and starts running clinical trials on himself and colleagues since all toxicity tests were proved to be negative for the drug.

However, an important side effect was missed by the researchers. The locality soon began to find mutilated and half eaten carcasses of animals and acts of animal vandalism. Unknown to themselves, the researchers were indulging such wanton acts going down to animal levels. This was explained to be because of the accumulation of the drug in the paths of upper brain to the limbic system of the brain which controls movement. In the end, the animalized researchers pursue Kimberley and in the ensuing mayhem, the castle on they resides catches fire and all but two of the scientists are killed.

Blind acceptance of potentially dangerous drugs and the problems of taking personality altering drugs are the two issues raised in the book and Cook has done a wonderful job in presenting it in an absorbing manner.

Overall rating: 4/5