This is one of Cook's weakest attempts at novel. "Acceptable risk" is actually a short story, that could have been perfectly told in 100 pages, enlarged with no real purpose (except maybe an editorial one) to almost 400. In the boring middle, one can forsee easily the very predictable end, which becomes even worse when the behaviour of the "evil" characters turns illogical, unnatural and laughable. Look for another work by Cook. This one is absolutely dissapointing and forgettable.