[Daybreak into Darkness: A True Story of Happiness and Heartbreak-> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330487892?ie=UTF8&tag=anglophonedir-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=1634&creativeASIN=0330487892]
Click on the link to buy or find out more

set in the hills just above Le Boulou

3 by Rupert Bogarde 3

Jacquie’s mania became alarming, until one evening she disappeared. Rupert, by now heavily in debt, was left alone with the children and a business in ruins. Her car was later found crashed and abandoned by the roadside and Rupert soon became the French police’s number one suspect. He looked for her for years, learning to live with people’s assumptions that he was responsible for Jacquie’s disappearance. Then in 2000, seven years after Jacquie’s disappearance, he finally discovered the truth.
Amazon

Another good read set in the local area is by Rupert Bogarde – Daybreak into Darkness. Quite different from the usual “buy a house in France with amusing anecdotes”. As it says on the cover – A true story of happiness and heartbreak.
And I mean serious heartbreak. It is set in the hills just above Boulou.
Ian