kid's chapter book about boy solving a hologram mystery

[Wyrmia]

Ok, I think I read this book in second grade (about 1988) and it was the first chapter book I ever read so I remember it fondly. The main character was a boy, and he starts out the book going from house to house selling newspapers or magazines. I think he goes to this old lady's house, and she asks him to come read to her sometimes. I'm not sure what happens next but I think there is some ghost in the house scaring the woman, and the little boy figures out that it was just a hologram and finds the person responsible. I think he had one boy friend and a girl friend in the book, and I remember scenes in a hardware store and a doctor's office. I think the book was dark-colored and it had a skull-like figure pictured on the front.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

It sounds like one of the Encyclopedia Brown books, which are chapter books, each of which contains several mysteries that he solves with the help of his friend Sally and another boy whose name escapes me. I read them back in the '60s when I was a kid! Sorry, I can't tell you which one, though.

[rivka]

I read all the EB books when I was a kid, and this really doesn't sound like any of them. The stories were much less detailed, for one thing.

It does sound a bit like a Three Investigators book. Maybe this one or this one?

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

I forgot about the Three Investigators. Weren't they written under the aegis of Alfred Hitchcock? I read those too. Maybe the Nate the Great series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat?

[rivka]

The earlier 3I books were; the later ones I think had given up that claim. ;) (There were 3 or 4 different authors spanning a significant time period.)

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Wyrmia, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Rainbowheart]

Still looking, Wyrmia?