Reindeer noir, the Finnish crime sub-genre influenced by Santa’s home town

The long and dark winter nights in Rovaniemi, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, are the perfect setting for crime shows. Photograph: Juho Kuva/The Guardian

Best known as the home town of Father Christmas, Rovaniemi is perhaps not an obvious setting for crime, corruption and murder.

But the unique lighting conditions, climate, nature, architecture and atmosphere of the capital of Finnish Lapland, a city of 64,000 that lies right on the Arctic Circle, is contributing to the evolution of its very own Nordic noir sub-genre.