In the article on John Buchan, I said his novels were seminal thrillers, somewhat overshadowed by the later best-selling works of intrigue for which they showed the way. Stevenson's Kidnapped takes us back yet another generation in the action-adventure thriller genre.

This is mainly an adventure story though. David is an heir but his miserly uncle has him kidnapped by sailors to be sold into slavery in North America. Before their ship can even round Scotland, we experience a collision, a sword and gun fight, and a shipwreck. The pace is swift as David and Breck try to make their way across land with British soldiers hot on their trail. It's all very exciting and suspenseful, though it is occasionally slowed down by pointless conversations between the two fugitives.

If there's one fault in Kidnapped it's Stevenson's attempt to create in Breck the kind of enigmatic character like Long John Silver who electrifies Treasure Island. Breck does indeed become the liveliest personality in Kidnapped, especially compared to the pallid, goody-good David. But he remains a contradiction of loyalty and deviousness, of swashbuckling boldness and human pettiness, never arising above the contradictions to bewitch, as the famous pirate does in that other novel. He remains annoying and admirable by turns.  

The book ends rather abruptly with David regaining his rightful place (this happy ending isn't giving away anything you wouldn't have guessed) but without settling Breck's fate. The loose ends are left to the sequel Catriona (1893), which is often published together with Kidnapped under the title David Balfour, which is how I read it as a kid. Catriona launches David into a romance of love, an altogether different kind of story from a romance of adventure. Kidnapped by itself though is a complete enough story that I and most other readers are happy to leave it right there.

— Eric