Testing your knowledge

Put your brains to work!

Matthew was recently talking about a book he remembers reading as a child, but can't actually remember much about it, other than he liked it (the fact that he could come up with any details about it was shocking to me, as he doesn't recall much from his childhood and he can't even remember that his third grade teacher was MY GRANDMA!). Here's what he remembers: The story was a mystery about a boy whose family goes to spend the summer somewhere. At the house they are staying in, there is the ghost of a young boy who lived 100 years or something prior to the time the story is set in. Matthew says the setting is in the country and felt like it was set in the 40s or 50s (and he would have read this in the early 80s). It is entirely possible he is misremembering all of this, but he's got me determined to track it down. I initially thought it sounded maybe John Bellairs-ish, but am not finding anything that seems to match that. Any ideas?