MARK HARMON IS WRITING HIS NEXT CHAPTER

AFTER NEARLY 20 YEARS ON NCIS THE ACTOR TAKES ON A WWII MYSTERY IN A NEW BOOK AND RELISHES MORE TIME WITH FAMILY

- ANDREA MANDELL

It's been roughly two years since Mark Harmon completed his 19-season run leading the CBS hit NCIS but don't look for him on the golf course. "I left the show, I didn't retire," says the star, who immediately pivoted to a new passion project that had him sifting through piles of research about World War II. Harmon, 72, teamed up with Leon Carroll Jr., the show's technical adviser, who spent 20 years as a real NCIS special agent, for a historical nonfiction book, Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, out Nov. 14. The book traces naval counterintelligence to its wartime roots and puts a spotlight on dueling spies in Hawaii who surreptitiously made an outsize impact on the U.S.'s Pacific battle with Japan. The project marks the latest move in a life that has left the father of two adult sons (with his wife, actress Pam Dawber, 73) feeling lucky. "If you had told me back in college that I was going to choose this career and work at this career, I don't think I would've believed you," he says.

Where did your passion for this piece of history come from?