A Woman at Bay, or a Fiend in Skirts is an adventure novel from the series of celebrated Nick Carter detective stories. In this thriller classic the king of detectives and a master of disguise crosses swords with Black Madge, a notorious outlaw and the queen of bandits and vagabonds. After few encounters Black Madge gathers a team of villains and they try to hunt him down, but Nick finds out about that and he strikes back. Nick Carter is a famous private detective, a fictional character invented by John R. Coryell and Ormond G. Smith.

This private detective from thriller classics has appeared in a variety of formats over more than a century. His father, Sin Carter, was also a detective and he taught young Nick some investigation techniques from early ages. After his father's death during one case, Nick takes over the investigation and continues to work as a detective. A master of disguise, Nick Carter spends most of the time under cover and keeps a low profile, based in an apartment on Madison Avenue in New York.