The Demon in the Freezer is a 2002 nonfiction book on the biological weapon agents smallpox and anthrax and how the American government develops defensive measures against them.

It was written by journalist Richard Preston, also author of the best-selling book The Hot Zone (1994), about ebolavirus outbreaks in Africa and Reston, Virginia and the U.S. government's response to them.

Many reviewers praised Preston's writing style, but some found the attempts to interweave the anthrax investigation with the smallpox material "klutzy"[2] and "disjointed".

[8] In contrast, Bryan Appleyard of The Times characterized the book as style over substance, calling Preston a "master of...cinematic journalese.

[3] Kakutani argued that cutting back and froth between accounts of the anthrax attacks and descriptions of smallpox was manipulative and constituted scaremongering.