Finished last night:

BLINDSPOT by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore, 2008.
Written by two historians, this novel is set in Boston in 1764, a time when the British are beginning to irritate the Colonials with various taxes to pay for their wars with the French. An undercurrent of rebellion exists, much talk of liberty and equality. The two main characters are Fanny Easton, a young woman of quality who has fled the home of her abusive father, and a recently arrived portrait painter, Stewart Jameson, who has fled London and is one step ahead of his creditors. Fanny has disguised herself as a boy and gets herself hired by Jameson as an apprentice under the name of Francis Weston; meanwhile, Stewart is trying to drum up business to pay off his creditors and needs Francis to help. Stewart, older, attractive, and attracted to both sexes, finds himself becoming attracted to his serving boy (and fighting it); they both become involved in the case of a prominent man being poisoned; Fanny is concerned about her young half sister (a slave); plus she is having her own feelings for her master; then the arrival of Stewart's old friend and lover Dr. Ignatius Alexander, a well educated, cultured free black, adds extra spice to the plot. Great detail and feel for the period, but at times the story drags from too much information. Could have used some more editing, I think; a good story overall, but at times it was slow going.