EDITOR'S NOTE: the Dead Body

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tip#123 for MYSTERY, THRILLER, SUSPENSE & CRIME WRITERS
"Dead body" is often redundant. Depending on context, try "body."

Example: "They found the [dead] body in the lake."

Here, "body" implies lifelessness. This isn't always the case but consider each time you write "dead body," can I say this more descriptively or more precisely? "Body" may suffice.
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From "Shroud for a Nightingale," (1971) by P.D. James:
“Dalgliesh had noticed it before when the body was taken away, this sense of an empty stage, of props casually disposed and bereft of meaning, of a drained air. The recently dead had their own mysterious charisma. Not without reason did men talk in whispers in their presence.”

Take a cue from master writer Stephen King, author of the novella "The Body."

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"Dead" body" is redundant. Just say "body," like P.D. James did in 1971.

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