# I want more stories with this plot, please! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093 "2005-07-05T01:51:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/1 "2005-07-05T01:51:28Z")
I love stories that involve missing person X coming back from being presumed dead. Throw in the possibility that X isn’t really X and I’m doubly happy. I know I’ve seen it lots of times, but the only examples I can think of are the novels _Brat Farrar_, by Josephine Tey and _She Came Back_, by Patricia Wentworth. Can anyone point me to other examples of this storyline? ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/2 "2005-07-05T01:54:19Z")
Don’t miss _Sommersby_. Really good movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/3 "2005-07-05T01:59:15Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > Don’t miss _Sommersby_. Really good movie. Which was a remake of **The Return of Martin Guerre** , a much better film. **[My Favorite Wife](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029284/)** featuring the great Irene Dunne (and some guy named Cary Grant). The final Emma Peel episode of **The Avengers** had her husband return after supposedly being dead. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/4 "2005-07-05T02:21:43Z")
As Ye Sow (1914), A Million Bid (1914), Should a Woman Divorce? (1914), The Fairy and the Waif (1915), The Sins of Society (1915), East Lynne (1916), The End of the Trail (1916), The Female of the Species (1916), Her Double Life (1916), The Hunted Woman (1916), Just a Song at Twilight (1916), The Lash of Destiny (1916), A Modern Enoch Arden (1916), Naked Hearts (1916), The Sex Lure (1916), The Straight Way (1916), The War Bride’s Secret (1916), Betsy Ross (1917), Daughter of Destiny (1917), The Eternal Mother (1917), The Great Bradley Mystery (1917), The Greater Law (1917), The Last Sentence (1917), The Man of Mystery (1917), The Recoil (1917), A Roadside Impresario (1917), The Scarlet Car (1917), The Silent Witness (1917), Troublemakers (1917), Whose Wife? (1917), The Claw (1918), The Divine Sacrifice (1918), A Game with Fate (1918), A Mother’s Secret (1918), Painted Lips (1918), Pals First (1918), The Price of Applause (1918), The Rose of the World (1918), The Safety Curtain (1918), The Whispering Chorus (1918), An Amateur Widow (1919), The Amazing Wife (1919), La Belle Russe (1919), The Bishop’s Emeralds (1919), Blind Man’s Eyes (1919), The Broken Butterfly (1919), For Better, for Worse (1919), The Heart of a Gypsy (1919), The Master Man (1919), The Other Man’s Wife (1919), The Quickening Flame (1919), Rose of the West (1919), What Every Woman Wants (1919), Widow by Proxy (1919), Wolves of the Night (1919), The Woman Thou Gavest Me (1919), The Phantom Melody (1920), The Purple Cipher (1920), Respectable by Proxy (1920), The Round-Up (1920), A Thousand to One (1920), A Modern Cain (1921), All the Brothers Were Valiant (1923), Firefly (1926), Born to Love (1931), Once a Lady (1931), The Amazon Head Hunters (1932), As You Desire Me (1932), The Drifter (1932), The Man from Yesterday (1932), Tombstone Canyon (1932), While Paris Sleeps (1932), Deluge (1933), Her Forgotten Past (1933), It’s Great to Be Alive (1933), Secret of the Blue Room (1933), El último varón sobre la Tierra (1933), The White Sister (1933), Orient Express (1934), Paris Interlude (1934), The Trumpet Blows (1934), Bar-Mitzvah (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), Thunder in the Night (1935), Without Regret (1935), Fury (1936), Ghost Town (1936), The Jungle Princess (1936), Last of the Warrens (1936), Three Live Ghosts (1936), London by Night (1937), One Man Justice (1937), One Mile from Heaven (1937), Rustler’s Valley (1937), Thunder Trail (1937), Durango Valley Raiders (1938), Law of the Plains (1938), Merrily We Live (1938), The Port of Missing Girls (1938), Sinners in Paradise (1938), The Covered Trailer (1939), Everything Happens at Night (1939), The Little Princess (1939), The Long Shot (1939), News Is Made at Night (1939), One Dark Night (1939), Spirit of Culver (1939), Star Reporter (1939), Billy the Kid’s Gun Justice (1940), The Ghost Comes Home (1940), Her Second Mother (1940), In Old Missouri (1940), My Favorite Wife (1940), Three Faces West (1940), Too Many Husbands (1940), Waterloo Bridge (1940), The Way of All Flesh (1940), The Great Man’s Lady (1942), The Falcon in Mexico (1944), The Port of Forty Thieves (1944), Song of Nevada (1944), The Brighton Strangler (1945), The Enchanted Forest (1945), Man Alive (1945), Of One Blood (1945), Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), Desire Me (1947), Key Witness (1947), Philo Vance’s Secret Mission (1947), Singapore (1947), Close-Up (1948), The Gentleman from Nowhere (1948), Take One False Step (1949), Woman in Hiding (1949), September Affair (1951), South Pacific Trail (1952), Jennifer (1953), Tanga Tika (1953), Hell’s Half Acre (1954), Ulysses (1955), Never Say Goodbye (1956), Two Grooms for a Bride (1957), Move Over Darling (1963). ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/5 "2005-07-05T02:41:41Z")
Okay then! I was only going to say Birth is sort of about that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/6 "2005-07-05T02:51:50Z")
_Tell No One_ by Harlan Coben ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/7 "2005-07-05T02:59:08Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I know I’ve seen it lots of times, but the only examples I can think of are the novels _Brat Farrar_, by Josephine Tey The first Adams Family movies has a plot that is virtually identical to Brat Farrar. Also, check out [Chase a Crooked Shadow](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050246/) and not quite the same, but [The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073615/plotsummary) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/8 "2005-07-05T03:07:07Z")
Nine Princes in Amber ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/9 "2005-07-05T03:21:04Z")
You like mysteries too, right? Check out **No Night is Too Long** , by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell). It has lots of stuff you’ll like in it. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/10 "2005-07-05T03:51:42Z")
If you’ll accept “person long missing, unknown if alive or dead” then you would probably like [“The Ivy Tree”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0449215717/qid=1120536275/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-2864130-7991339?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Mary Stewart. It’s a great mystery, very well written, and extremely romantic. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/11 "2005-07-05T06:44:42Z")
How’s for TV shows? Heh, 4th season of Reboot, Bob returns (after disapearing at the end of the 2nd season). This is made even more confusing by the fact that Bob already returned in the 3rd season (That’s right, two Bobs, let’s not even get into the two Enzos 😃 ) Buffy the Vampire Slayer almost made a running gag out of Buffy returning from the dead. Babylon 5 used the “back from the dead” plotline around the end of the 3rd season, and again in the 4th season. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/12 "2005-07-05T07:13:07Z")
There was a Balzac short story which I think was made into a film with Gerard Depardieu - Le Colonel Chabert. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/13 "2005-07-05T07:17:49Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > There was a Balzac short story which I think was made into a film with Gerard Depardieu - Le Colonel Chabert. Speaking of Gerard Depardieu\*, there’s The Count of Monte Cristo. \*He was in a miniseries based on it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/14 "2005-07-05T12:26:18Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > If you’ll accept “person long missing, unknown if alive or dead” Absolutely. I was too specific in the OP. Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Keep 'em coming! ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/15 "2005-07-05T13:16:33Z")
There was an episode of Night Court. Sorry, that’s all I’ve got. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/16 "2005-07-05T13:44:54Z")
There’s the science fiction novel **Who?** by Algis Budris, later turned into a movie that I’ve never seen. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/17 "2005-07-05T15:31:30Z")
Any comic book, ever. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/18 "2005-07-05T15:32:43Z")
Tsk. **CandidGamera** stole my answer. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/19 "2005-07-06T14:46:19Z")
Comic books aren’t really the feel I was going for, but I guess they fit the constraints of the OP. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093/20 "2005-07-06T15:03:44Z")
**Olivier, Olivier** , a fine film by Agnieszka Holland. Plus Carol Reed’s **The Third Man** , of course. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-stories-with-this-plot-please/311093.md?page=2)