By Dierdre Shesgreen and Catalina Camia Gannett

WASHINGTON It turns out Todd Akin isn't sorry after all.

In a new tell-all book, the former Missouri GOP congressman gives a behind-the-scenes account of his failed and controversial Senate bid in 2012. And he defends the comments he made about abortion and rape in an August 2012 television interview, which sparked a national uproar and torpedoed his Senate bid.

In those remarks, Akin, R-St. Louis County, said that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Akin's comments went viral, with Democrats and Republicans alike denouncing him. Akin apologized, but national Republicans pressured Akin to drop out of the race and yanked the party's financial support from his campaign.

In the new book, Akin said his apology was a mistake.

"By asking the public at large for forgiveness, I was validating the willful misinterpretation of what I had said," Akin writes in the book, touting "Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom."

Akin writes that his remarks were aimed at highlighting "the impact of stress on fertility," and he says it remains a subject of debate among doctors.

"Doubt me? Google 'stress and infertility,' and you will find a library of research on the subject," Akin writes.

Akin also defends his use of the phrase "legitimate rape," saying that crime is "evil" but noting that some high-profile allegations of rape were later discredited.

Akin's book, scheduled to be released Tuesday, puts the Missouri Republican back in the political spotlight and promises to shake up the GOP establishment. The publisher, WND Books, provided an advance copy of the tome to Gannett.

In a promo for the book, Akin promises to "name names," and he delivers — excoriating top Republicans, such as Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for making a "beeline" to the nearest microphone to denounce him.

But Akin reserves some of his harshest words for Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. He describes a cordial but cool relationship that turned deeply bitter during the 2012 election.

He describes Blunt as politically calculating, saying Blunt was eager to drop Akin's name when the senator was trying to court conservatives, but then kept his distance from Akin's Senate bid until he won the primary.

After Akin suggested, in comments at the Missouri State Fair in August 2012, that the federal government should end its role in the school lunch program, Akin writes that Blunt "took me to the woodshed. He said if I made another 'gaffe' like that, the state party would not support me," Akin recounts in the book.

A few days into the firestorm over his "legitimate rape" comments, Akin said he called Blunt and asked him not to add his voice to the calls for him to quit the race.

"That evening, we received his reply — a letter that was to be soon released if I did not step down," Akin writes. "It called for my withdrawal and was signed by every current and past Republican U.S. senator from Missouri."

That, Akin says, "was the opening salvo of a well-organized, full-scale Republican attack, led in most cases by a state party that worked under Roy Blunt's direction."

He said Blunt is "good at politics" and generally tried "not to leave his fingerprints on his handiwork." But in this case, "he would leave a bloody war club" all over the effort to force Akin out of the race.

He said the "Roy Blunt machine" worked to dry up his fundraising and block critical endorsements.

Asked for a comment on the book, a spokeswoman for Blunt said:

"Senator Blunt appreciates the service Todd Akin has given to our country and the service his sons continue to give. He thinks Congressman Akin is a good man and well-intentioned, but based on what he has heard about the book, Senator Blunt has decided not to read it."

The release of Akin's book is sure to cause consternation among top Republicans, reigniting a fraught debate about abortion and rape at a time when the GOP is vying to win a majority in the Senate.

Many Republicans blame Akin for the party's failure to take over the Senate in 2012. Before his rape comments, Akin was in a tight Senate race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, whom the GOP had targeted as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.

Akin's remarks energized female voters and alienated many independents and Republicans, and McCaskill easily won a second Senate term.

McCaskill is writing her own behind-the-scenes account of the 2012 Senate campaign. She has promised to detail how she helped boost Akin in a three-way Republican primary, because she believed he would be the easiest candidate for her to beat. Her book is expected to come out at the end of 2014.

Reporter Deirdre Shesgreen writes for the News-Leader from Gannett's offices in Washington, D.C. USA Today reporter Catalina Camia contributed to this story.